Photos of the Mount, Edith Wharton Restorations Photos by Kevin Sprague
Fortunately both the buildings and grounds of Edith Wharton’s 1902 masterpiece have been largely restored.
Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
The Mount is notable for its lightness and modernity in comparison to the many brick, Elizabethan houses being built in Lenox at the time. The Mount, on Plunkett Street, is open to the public.
Nowood/Shipton Court
Shipton Court – 1911 (Lenox Library)
Just down the street, the former 1885 “cottage” of Robert Spencer, Nowood (no pictures found) was purchased in 1911 by Another highly pedigreed family.
Gen. Meredith Read – Portrait at Shipton Court (Lenox Library)
Emily Meredith Read Spencer was a descendent of William Bradford and her husband descended from one of Stockbridge’s founding families. In true gilded age fashion, Emily imported staircases from England, doubled the size and renamed it Shipton Court.
Emily hesitated to build her own “cottage” because she was afraid she wouldn’t live long enough. Forty at the time, she apparently (no dates found) lived well into the 20th century (Cleveland Armory, The Last Resort) and entertained distinguished guests such as Isadora Duncan with Emily’s pet piglet “Rosie” running through the parlor.
Today it is an inn named Seven Hills.
Erskine Park
Before there was Erskine Park there was Larchmont (dated 1879?). We have little information about Erskine Park’s predecessor but we know that George and Marguerite Westinghouse bought the Henry De Bois Schenck farm of 100 acres overlooking Laurel Lake at the Lenox-Lee line. After adding 500
Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt
acres, landscaping and completing the elaborate Queen Anne shown above in 1893, the Westinghouses split their time between this house, a house outside of Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C.
After they died in 1914, their son George Westinghouse Jr. sold the property to Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt, the widow of Alfred G. Vanderbilt.
Fox hollow (Holmwood) including some recent additions.
She demolished the existing house and built a large Colonial Revival house designed by Delano and Aldrich in 1919. She named it Holmwood and spent a few weeks a year there. In 1939, it was purchased by the Foxhollow School for girls. In 1942 the school also bought The Mount next door. The school closed in 1976 and the property became a condominium complex and resort.
High Lawn
Lila Vanderbilt Sloane Field in Her NY Apartment
Margaret Emerson’s friend Lila Vanderbilt Sloane (1877 – 1934) decided to build her cottage, High Lawn, next door.
Like so many gilded age estates, High Lawn replaced an existing set of buildings.
Hockey at High Lawn – Built 1909
Already called High Lawn, the original farm had been substantially improved by local horse breeder Elizur Smith.
Lila was the daughter of the Sloane’s of Elm Court, so she stayed close to home. She chose a very different (and more contemporary for the early 20th century) formal design by Delano & Aldrich.
Lila’s husband, William Broadhurst Osgood Field (1870-1948) was a mechanical engineer and bibliophile. With Morris Kellogg, Field became a leader in design and construction for chemical process plants.
High Lawn Farm Buildings
The home remains in private hands and the farm is run as a professional dairy operation. Many of the fanciful farm buildings, largely designed by estate architects Burnett & Hopkins of New York, remain standing as well and can be easily seen from the road.
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For much more on the architecture of these houses and the people who lived in them, see
Houses of the Berkshires, 1870-1930, by Richard S. Jackson Jr. and Cornelia Brooke Gilder, Acanthus Press, 2006
The Berkshire Cottages, A Vanishing Era, by Carole Owens, Cottage Press, Inc. 1980
The lovely Federalist Academy building (still standing on Main Street) attracted well educated Lenox residents and visitors who would set a tone for future centuries. Although one of the most notable educational institutions, it was not the first.
Early Educational Efforts
Eighteenth century New England towns with 50 or more families (the minimum for a town) were required (in addition to building a meeting house and hiring a minister) to provide a schoolmaster to teach reading and writing. Larger towns were required to provide a grammar school.
There was no requirement for a building and schooling might have taken place in people’s home or in the meeting house. Part of whatever meager pay the school master’s received was in the form of room and board – obtained by moving from house to house.
No matter how well intentioned, it apparently took the town a while to move on this mandate as the first record relevant to this issue was a meeting March 16, 1770 in which it was voted to raise 20 pounds to hire schooling.
In the original proprietor’s agreement a lot (north of the current church) had been set aside for a school house. By the early 19th century, the town had been divided into districts. By 1860 there were nine districts. It’s not clear what happened to the “school lot- #6” — perhaps it was sold to fund other school buildings.
As described by Tucker* these early school houses would have been crude and small with benches rather than seats or desks and heat from a large box stove. Students would have to take turns bringing the kindling to start the fire.
A Private School in the Village
The village, referred to in records as District #2, included a private school supported by Major Azariah Egleston. There is a record of Amasa Glezen being paid for teaching and for finding a house for the school in 1792.
The Lenox Library (it’s not clear how it was funded) was established in 1797 and would have provided an important source for reading material — books still being scarce and expensive.
Advancing to “Higher Education”
It’s difficult to make equivalencies to modern educational grades, but the petition to the state for incorporation of an academy , Jan. 5, 1803 would have been significant in that most locations at the time would have had nothing like a high school. This academy (of course for males only!) would have taught Latin, math and other subjects that would have prepared these young men for a college education.
It is not clear whether it was the state, the town, or certain individuals, but someone owned a township in Maine (still part of Massachusetts at the time). Half of said township was sold off make a payment on the Academy. When combined with other private donations (led by the ubiquitous Revolutionary War veterans and town leaders Azariah Egleston and William Walker), it was enough to buy the land and build the handsome building still with us today. The contributors read like a “who’s who,” of early 19th century Berkshire County: the Rev. Thomas Allen of Pittsfield, Joseph Whiten of Lee, Ephraim of Sheffield, Rev. Jacob Catlen of New Marlboro, Barnabas Bidwell of Stockbridge, Thomas Ives of Great Barrington, Nathaniel Bishop of Richmond, and five additional Lenox citizens: Rev. Samuel Shepard, Joseph Goodwin, Eldad Lewis, Captain Enos Stone and Dr. Caleb Hyde.
The Academy records giving Azirah Egleston $2200 May 21, 1807, for “38 3/4 rods of land together with the Academy now standing on the premises.”
There has been some debate about when the building was completed, but 1803 is generally accepted as the start date and clearly it was completed by 1807. In fact, the building may have been standing before 1803. The exchange above (between Amasa Glezen and Azirah Egleston) may have been for basic education or for an existing “academy” facility in 1792.
Teachers and Students
Levi Glezen was the first principal. He had been a student at Williams and then gone on to establish himself as an educator in Kinderhook and Sheffield. Another well known name in the list of educators who led the Academy was John Hotchkin. A teacher of Latin and Greek, he was principal from 1823 to 1847 and began the practice of “annual exhibitions.” For these student recitals, stores closed, farmers came to town and the normal business of the village ceased for this August holiday.
The charge for students was $7 per 14 week term. They usually boarded in local homes for an additional $1.25 to $1.50 a week.
The excellent reputation of the Academy was indicated by the geographic reach of some of its well-known graduates:
Alexander Hamilton Stephens (went on to become vice president of the Confederate States of America)
Mark Hopkins who would go on to become an educational leader at Williams College and elsewhere
Henry Wheeler Shaw of Lanesboro (generally known as Josh Billings)
Charles Sedgwick who would become clerk of the Lenox-based courts and the husband of Elizabeth who would start a similar school at their home, “The Hive,” for females
Julius Rockwell – distinguished lawyer and citizen of Lenox
William Lowndes Yancey – secessionist from Alabama
Dr. Henry M. Field, editor of the Evangelist.
Evolution
Graduating Class c. 1900
The Academy closed in 1866 for about 13 years. In 1879 the town used it as a high school. The building was moved a bit south (to its current location) and was repaired.
The town constructed a new high school in 1908 (now Cameron House) which was used for that purpose until the Lenox Memorial High School was completed in 1966.
The Academy was used as a school sporadically until 1911 when Charles Lanier and Newbold Morris opened it as the Trinity School.
By the middle of the 20th century, the building was being used for commercial purposes and had substantially deteriorated. On October 24, 1946, the town voted to take over the building and restore it.
Today it is the home of the Lenox Historical Society and is used by the VFW and the Historical Commission.
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Sources:
*Unpublished manuscript – George Tucker
Lenox: Massachusetts Shire Town, by David H. Wood, Published by the Town of Lenox 1969
By the turn of the 20th century, the episcopal church in Lenox had added four grand looking gilded age buildings to Lenox: church, chapel, and rectory in Lenox village and St. Helena’s in New Lenox.
Episcopalians Had Uphill Battle in a Congregational State
But the Anglican Church, throughout Massachusetts, had an uphill battle establishing itself.
The puritan (Congregational) church was, in the early days of Massachusetts, as close to a state church as any would ever be in America. Puritans had come to Massachusetts in 1620 primarily because they objected to the Church of England (the parent religious body of the Episcopal Church in the United States). In the early days, church and state were totally intermingled as to law, voting and community activities. By 1700, the puritan theocracy had been largely superseded by secular royal government in Massachusetts. The royal government, in fact, forced the creation of and tolerance of an Anglican church in Boston. But the “tilt” to Congregationalism remained in Massachusetts. By the time the first settlers arrived in Lenox, there were 13 Anglican parishes — all east of Worcester.
As late as 1767, when Lenox was formed, towns were still required to have a church and citizens were taxed to support that church. It went without saying that the “official” church was the Congregational Church. To be exempt from paying this tax, a citizen had to be certified to be a member of another “official” church and that was not possible for Anglicans in Lenox until 1793. The tax for support of the church continued until the new state constitution in 1834.
Although many of Lenox’s early settlers were Anglican, including soon to Revolutionary War heroes, Azariah Egleston and John Paterson, many tories were also Anglican and growth of the Episcopal church was somewhat retarded during the Revolutionary years due to its ties to England.
At the end of the Revolution the American Anglican Church declared its independence from the Church of England and took on the official title Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. In due course, American bishops were appointed and the Book of Common Prayer was re-writen to be acceptable in the new United States (among other things, dropping blessings to the king).
Early Services for Anglicans
The wilds of early Berkshire County were territory for missionaries. There religious needs were met by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts(SPG). The first Anglican priest to visit Lenox, the Rev. Roger Viets, was SPG from Simsbury, CT. It was trying work. He wrote that the people were so poor they could not provide enough to cover the expenses of his long and difficult journey to Lenox and beyond. In 1764 the beleaguered Rev. Viets was arrested in Great Barrington for conducting a wedding.
Until the first Trinity Church Was Completed in 1818, Services Were Held in Private Homes or The First County Court House
Rev. Gideon Bostwick, also under SPG auspices, became the first resident rector in the Berkshires (stationed in Great Barrington) and conducted regular services in Lenox from 1770 to 1793. In 1774 he mentions key names in the organizing of Lenox services: David Perrey, John Whitlock, John Whitlock, Jr., Royce Hall and Eliphalel Fowler. A Day Book entry from May 19, 1794 lists Samuel Quincy as Clerk, Josh Whitlock and Jesse Bradley as Wardens, Amasa Glezen, Jeremiah Dewey, Issac Goodrich as Choristers.
With the appropriate infrastructure now in place, Lenox area Anglicans organized an official parish in 1793. It initially included Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge and Pittsfield. In that same year Deacon Daniel Burbans was hired as rector for Lenox. He was rector for Lenox and Lanesborough as well as taking up the missionary work of the now deceased Rev. Bostwick throughout the Berkshires.
It is not completely clear where these early Lenox services were conducted in the newly built county court house. (Then on Walker St.; still standing today on Housatonic).
Rev. Burhans took a position in Newton, Connecticut in 1799 and Lenox engaged the Rev. Gamaliel Thatcher to be shared with Lanesborough. He was followed in 1800 by Rev. Ezra Bradley – also shared with Lanesborough. In 1801 Lenox reached an agreement to share the services of Rev. Samuel Griswold with Great Barrington. Rev. Griswold was a nephew of the intrepid Rev. Roger Viets who had conducted the first Anglican services in Lenox. He led the congregation through the completion of their first church in 1818. That same year he was dismissed over an unspecified quarrel.
Early Members of Trinity
The Act of Incorporation of 1805 lists the following from Lenox:
Samuel Collins
Selah Cook
David Dunbar
Samuel Dunbar
Azariah Egleston
Moses Geer
Amassa Glezen
John Gregory
Moses Hall
John Hill
Henry Hunford, Jr.
Edward Martindale
Titus Parker
Eleazar Phelps
Samuel Quincy
Stephen Root
David Smith
James Smith
Jonathan Thompson
Thaddeus Thompson
Elijah Treat
John Tyler
William Wells
John Willard
Lenox residents added to the incorporation in 1807:
Salmon Andrews
Abel Avery
Daniel Butler
Jethro Butler, Jr.
David Collins
Stephen Crittenden
Samuel Gray
Edward Hatch
David Hubby
Moses Merwin
Daniel Palley
Samuel Palley, Jr.
Calvin Perry
Joseph Presby
Calvin Sears
Ashbel Sprague
Oliver Stedman
Henry Taylor
Joseph Tucker
Ira Warrener
Warren Warrener
John Whitlock
Daniel Williams
Samuel Wright
Rectors of Trinity Parish (1793-1801)
Daniel Burhans (1793-1799), shared with Lanesborough
Gamaliel Thatcher (1799-1801), one fourth – 3/4 Lanesborough
(Rev. Ezra Bradley also mentioned as sharing with Lanesborough in 1800)
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Sources of Information
History of Trinity Church, Lenox, Massachusetts, 1763-1895 by Rev. Charles J. Palmer, John Wilson and Sons University Press, Cambridge, 1895
The Goodness That Doth Crown Our Days, A History of Trinity Parish by John Allen Gable, Lamb Printing, North Adams, MA, 1993
Started in 1805 and dedicated January 1806, the Church on the Hill remains one of the loveliest buildings in Lenox. Information on the architecture and the nearby burying ground and early members have been described. Here is some background on the evolution of the its church buildings.
Required Meeting House
At the time Richmond and Lenox were being formed, church and state were still closely aligned. Citizens were taxed for support of the church and men had to be members of the church to vote. A meeting house that was to function as both church and town meeting hall was a requirement for government approval of a town. Because of the mountain range running down the middle of Lot#8, two locations were needed for meeting houses and by 1767 the lot was split into the two towns we know today.
The church was organized in 1769 by Rev. Samuel Hopkins of Great Barrington. Land for the meeting house and nearby burying ground was donated by the heirs of Rev. Reynolds – one of the holders of the Ministers Grant that included much of current Lenox.
By 1770, Rev. Samuel Munson had been called to be minister and the original meeting house had been built slightly southwest of the site of the current church. Rev. Samuel Shephard was called to minister to the church in 1795 and remained pastor until his death in 1846.
New Church in 1805
By 1803, town population had grown to 1,000 and the original meeting house had outlived its usefulness. In fact the old meeting house’s condition and size made congregants hesitant to hold services there. A commitment was made at town meeting to construct a new church.
Much of the princely construction cost of almost $7,000 was paid by the sale of the box like pews (floor plan re-designed in 1840). Sale of the pews brought in $6,811 and sale of the old meeting house brought in $205.51.
The contract for construction specified it was to be made conformable to the plan of a steeple laid down in plot No. 33 in ‘Benjamin’s Country Builders Assistant.” The builder, Benjamin Goodrich is thought to have also played a role in the design. Official documentation (Form B) attributes design to architect Captain Issac Daman.
Evolution of the Church Design
The original floorplan, as noted above, consisted of high sided box pews. The circular pulpit was high so the preacher could see the worshippers. No fires were allowed in the church so parishioners probably brought boxes of coals – foot warmers – into their pews. During the winter the minister preached in a large blue overcoat and wore with a red bandanna around his neck and woolen mittens on his hands. The long services broke at midday and parishioners went to nearby houses to warm themselves.
In 1840 the box pews were replaced with bench pews similar to those in use today. The center alley was eliminated and replaced by two large side aisles. The pulpit and the gallery front were lowered and stoves were installed in the back of the main room.
New MA Constitution and the Church
In 1834 the new Massachusetts state constitution formalized separation of church and state by prohibiting town support for church operation or buildings. This had no effect on the Church on the Hill building but did require relinquishing the acerage of the burying ground and all the land around the church except for the footprint of the building itself.
Churchyard Was Planted with a Row of Trees Given by 90 Year Old Eldad Post in 1870; in 1832 Mr. D. Williams Gave this Strip of Land to the Town That Was to Be Forever Kept Open to Preserve the Outlook from the Church.
In the early days there were few hymn books and it sounds like music was – to say the least – not a center piece of worship. Use of the violin and flute was specifically criticized because they unpleasantly resembled the flute, harp, sackbut and dulcimer which accompanied the worship of Nebuchadnezzar. By 1850, thinking on music had evolved and the rear gallery was resigned to house an instrument called a “Seraphim” to support the singers. In 1850 the seats in the gallery in the porch were appropriated “for the use of those who assisted in singing”. In 1868 the present organ was installed.
From “Buildings” by Rev. Harris B. Hinchcliffe in Church on the Hill History Gathered 1769-1970.
“In 1866, the floor plan of the meetinghouse as it presently exists was set up, and in 1880 a society of young women of the church financed a projection of the front wall of the building and installed the present platform and pulpit…….”
“…..In the late 1940’s and throughout the 1950’s the meetinghouse received rather continuous efforts of modernization. Electricity was finally brought in, oil heating was installed so that for the first time in many years services might be conducted at main church building throughout the winter.”
In the early days, worshippers were called to services by the beating of a drum. A bell was installed at some point prior to 1838 when the Centennial History makes reference to a second bell being hung in the steeple (still in use as of 1906).
Fanny Kemble donated a clock in 1849 that was plagued with difficulty and was followed by the gift of a second clock by Morris K. Jesup in 1899.
The first Bible gift recorded was from William Walker in 1818; another (still in use as of 1906) was donated by his son William P. Walker in 1852. The baptismal font and tablets at the rear of the pulpit were placed in 1882 in memory of Sarah and Thomas Egleston. The two pulpit lamps were given by Mrs. Robert E. Hill in the name of her husband Robert E. Hill, in memory of his grandfather Dr. Robert Worthington.
In 1896 Mrs. Mary Hill present a pulpit in memory of her mother Mrs. Jane Worthington Hill.
In 1864 Ammi Robbins donated the iron fence with stone posts. His heirs gave the church society $1,000 the income of which was to be used to maintain the fence and the church grounds. Needless to say that income didn’t last to the present day! Fencing, church grounds and the cemetery owned by the Town of Lenox and maintained by the DPW
The site selected had been the location of the Lenox Library until the library moved to its current location in 1873 to what had been the second county courthouse on Main St. The building on the site had been a wooden octagon building. Foundation stones from the old library building were used in construction of the chapel
The Gothic Revival chapel was designed by J.F. Rathbone of Pittsfield and built by J.W. Cooney. The original design had frescoed walls and a Gothic window facing the street.
It was used primarily as a meeting place until 1900. The chapel was re-designed, a dining room was added in the basement, the present entrance on the north side was added and a glass memorial window, in honor of Blanch F. Ferguson, was installed replacing the Gothic window.
Until the installation of oil heat in the main church in the 1950’s, winter services were held in the chapel.
The Chapel was severely damaged by fire in the mid 1930’s but insurance was sufficient to restore the chapel to its turn of the century appearance.
. In the 1950’s oil heat was installed at the Church on the Hill and services returned to that building.
A Church School held in the Chapel had increased its enrollment to the point that it overflowed the building by 1968. The interior of the Chapel was remodeled at this time to accommodate the school activities. The chapel space was reduced so two classrooms and office space could be added.
Note: Both the Church on the Hill and the Chapel are on the National Register.
Church on the Hill Parsonage
136 Main St., Congregational Church Parsonage
Rev. Hinchcliffe describes the various parsonages in The Church on the Hill History, Gathered 1769-1970.
“Dr. Samuel Shepard is reputed to have lived in a house on the old Bradford Tract, approximately across the Pittsfield Road to the east of the State Building on Routes 7-20. This Pittsfield Road was not then so now, the main roads north being Cliffwood and East Streets. Where the other early pastors lived is unknown.
During the pastorate of the Rev. E.K. Alden, a house was purchased for a parsonage. It was located just north of the present rectory of St. Ann’s Church on Main Street. During the pastorate of the Rev. Edward Day, the parsonage having fallen into a dilapidated condition, plans were made and a committee was elected to build a new house and barn on the same site. These were completed and Mr. Day occupied the new parsonage (which still stands*) for several years before he was dismissed in 1898.
The present* parsonage on Cliffwood Street was willed to the Church in 1919 by Mrs. Mary H. Barrett. She was the granddaughter of Dr. Robert Worthington, a former deacon of the Church and staunch admirer of Dr. Shepard, who build and first occupied the house sometime between 1815 and 1820….”
*refers to 1970…the parsonage occupied by Mr. Day still stands (pictured above) as of 2016.
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Sources:
Form B
Centennial Anniversary of the Dedication of the Old Church on the Hill, Press of the Son, Pittsfield, MA 1908
The Church on the Hill, United Church of Christ, Lenox, Massachusetts, History, Gathered 1769-1970,
The Lenox Historic District was established in June 1975 by a vote at a special town meeting of 162 in favor, 20 opposed. It was one of the first Historic Districts in the area. In 1960 the state had passed legislation to encourage the formation of local historic districts (40C)
From what we can learn from existing documents and newspapers, the level of interest was high because the village had, since being re-zoned commercial, started to lose its unique character. As early as the late ’60’s planning documents identified keeping Lenox Village as a unique type of shopping area the best way to compete with ubiquitous strip malls and shopping areas.
The first report (town meeting 1976) of the Historic District Commission re-iterated its purpose:
“The By-law expects the Commission to be a watch-dog over the Historic District to prevent alteration or construction which, in its opinion will be out of keeping with the character and history of the Town. It is the right, duty and purpose of the Commission to insure the Town and all its members against such violent change as would destroy or impair its character in any significant way.”
The town website provides guidelines on the process to be followed to get the approval of the Historic District Commission and suggestions of what changes will be considered consistent with the goals of the District.
Maps of the historic property and the list of properties follow.
The town also has a Historical Commission which is charged with he Lenox Historical Commission was formed by the Select Board to preserve and protect the historical assets of Lenox; to record (through surveys) the historical assets of the Town; to assist any Town board when asked; to educate the citizens about their historical heritage through exhibits and lectures. The Historic District is encouraged to turn to the Historical Commission for information on properties in the district.
The work of the Historical Commission has included surveys of the historic properties in town. These surveys have been reproduced on this website (see “Places”).
Debt Ridden Farmers Closed the Berkshire County Courts Twice in the Fall of 1786.
The farmers of rural Massachusetts had been struggling with debt and the non-responsiveness of their representatives since before the end of the Revolutionary War. By 1786 protests were escalating. Regulators, as they called themselves, closed the Berkshire County court twice in the fall of 1786.
General Benjamin Lincoln
As many as 9,000 farmers across Massachusetts were eventually involved in protesting the debt collection of the merchants and the courts. Local militia were largely farmers themselves and sympathetic to the Regulators. The commercially oriented elite asked Henry Knox to form (and funded) an army to protect their interests and supplement the local militia. Knox demurred but Revolutionary War veteran Benjamin Lincoln took up the cause.
Aping their pre Revolutionary British predecessors, the Boston dominated legislature passed laws in the fall of 1786 that legalized severe punishment of crowds gathered to protest or riot. Finally in November 1786 they suspended habeas corpus (enabling them to apprehend and imprison protestors for an indefinite period of time without bail). It authorized the arrest and incarceration of anyone suspected of being unfriendly to the government. Further, they passed a bill preventing the spread of false reports criticizing the government.
In an attempt to break up the Shaysites, the legislature further offered an opportunity to be awarded total indemnity if they took an oath of allegiance to the government.
The threat of both force and legal action (without addressing the debt problems at the root of the protest) gained little ground with the Regulators.
From Protest to Rebellion
Many Shaysites (including key figures such as Daniel Shays, Luke Day and Reuben Dickinson) had military experience. They knew (whether government loyal militia or paid army from Boston)troops were coming to quell further action. They needed weapons. The largest weapons cache in New England was in the Springfield Armory.
Stormed Springfield Armory for Weapons in January 1787 – the Last and Only Major Military Action
In January 1787, the Shaysites attacked the Springfield Armory. It was successfully defended by Revolutionary War veteran William Shepard.
Meanwhile Benjamin Lincoln, the failed defender of Charleston during the Revolution, was hard on the heels of the rebels with an army funded and armed by Boston. The Regulators fled first to their home area – Pelham – and then north to Vermont and west to the Berkshires breaking up into smaller groups.
Meanwhile Back in Berkshire County
Major General John Paterson Must Have Come Home to Some Prosperity Building This Lovely Home in 1783. It Still Stands at7 Main St.
Major General John Paterson was the leader of the Berkshire militia and a champion of conservative interests in the Pittsfield and Lenox conventions of 1782-1786.
The Shaysites had, by the time they reached Berkshire County, dwindled to 300-400 dispersed and poorly armed men but still seemed to have engendered enough sympathy with the population and members of the militia to alarm Paterson.
“Stockbridge, January 31, 1787
To General Lincoln:
Sir: The desperation of the factions in the County against Government has induced a kind of frenzy, the effects of which have been a most industrious propagation of falsehood and misrepresentation of facts, and the consequent agitation of the minds of the deluded multitude.
Last night, by express from several parts of the County, I am informed of insurrections taking place. My only security under present circumstances will be attempting to prevent a junction o the insurgents, which probably cannot be effected without the effusion of blood; to extricate me from this disagreeable situation, therefore, I pray you, Sir, to send to my aid a sufficient free to prevent the necessity of adopting that measure.” (Egleston p. 186)
By late February, Benjamin Lincoln was in Pittsfield but he had released the militia. His force had dwindled to 30 men.
The Rebellion Had Started to Disintegrate Into Housebreaking and General Lawlessness by Late Winter 1787
In fact the “revolution” may have started to disintegrate into a general breakdown of law and order among increasingly disheartened Regulators. Several stories that have been preserved paint the picture.
Just before Benjamin Lincoln reached Pittsfield 250 rebels,under Peter Wilcox, Jr. collected at Lee to once again block the court. Paterson and 300 militia came out to oppose them. The rebels took cover on Perry Hill and got a yard beam from Mrs. Perry’s loom and rigged it to look like a canon. Paterson’s men beat a retreat.
Mum Bet Protected the Sedgwick Home in Stockbridge from Rebels
During the same 1787 winter, rebels under Captain Perez Hamlin (from Lenox but residing in New York at the time) Massachusetts and attempted to pillage, among other things, the home of leading conservative – Theodore Sedgwick. The famous Mum Bet hid the family silver and became, once again, a great heroine.
Shortly thereafter Hamlin and his men imprisoned 32 men including Elisha Williams and Henry Hopkins. With these prisoners and their booty they proceeded in to Great Barrington and then, in sleighs on towards Sheffield.
The End of the Insurgency and the Consequences
The Marker Noting the End of Shays Rebellion Was Installed in Sheffield About 100 Years After the Event
They were pursued by Ingersoll and Goodrich from Great Barrington, Colonel Ashley of Sheffield and later William Walker of Lenox. It seems to have been something like 100 men on each side but the records are somewhat contradictory. They skirmished across modern-day Sheffield and Egremont. The dead included Solomon Glezen who had been taken prisoner in Stockbridge and allegedly used as a human shield.
The prisoners exceeded the capacity of the Great Barrington jail and the overflow was taken to Lenox. Most were granted pardons.
Most of the Regulator leaders had fled to New York or Vermont so the Berkshire courts were somewhat hard pressed to find an appropriate number of rebels to punish. Two were broken out of the Great Barrington jail by their wives Molly Wilcox and Abigail Austin (really – smuggled saws and everything).
Two, John Bly and Charles Rose, were hung in Lenox (apparently as of Fall 1787 taking its place as the legal center of the County). Richards (p. 41) suspects they were guilty of not much more than breaking and entering in an atmosphere of lawlessness but had few connections so took a fall that many others avoided.
Judge Whiting, who had sympathized with the rebels in the 1786 protests at the Great Barrington courts, was savaged by strong Federalist Theodore Sedgwick. It is likely other sympathizers in positions of authority met the same exclusionary fate.
As everyone knows, Shays Rebellion supported the arguments of men like James Madison, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton that the loose confederation that had won the war against Great Britain, needed to be strengthened. Needless to say, Thomas Jefferson, then Ambassador to France disagreed.
A May 1787 meeting of the Continental Congress had been called and was held before the raid on the Springfield Armory in January 1787. Many delegates decided to come after hearing of the1786-1787 uprisings in Massachusetts.
The resulting US Constitution now included provisions such as creation of a national army that could suppress revolt. Who knows what would have happened to the Constitution sent to the states in September 1787 if the state legislators had not been worried (perhaps unduly) about falling into chaos – the perceived outcome if the Regulators succeeded.
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The Life of John Paterson: Major General In The Revolutionary Army, by Thomas Egleston, G.P Putnam’s Sons, New York, NY, 1894
Shays’ Rebellion and the Constitution in American History, by Mary E. Hull, Onslow Publishers, Inc., Berkley Heights, NJ, 2000
Shay’s Rebellion The American Revolution’s Final Battle, by Leonard L. Richards, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2002
Shays’ Rebellion The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection, by David P. Szatmary, The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA, 1980
In November of 1782* the Massachusetts state Legislature appointed a committee of three men to visit Berkshire County and pick a location more centrally located than Great Barrington.
The committee recommended that Lenox become the county seat after January 1784 to give the town time to erect a suitable courthouse. It also gave Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and Pittsfield the opportunity to protest the choice. Somehow Lenox persevered and remained the center of Berkshire County legal activities until 1867.
1791 Berkshire County Courthouse, Lenox, Massachusetts. Image captured from pdf of Kevin Sweeney’s 1993 “Meetinghouses,: Changing Perceptions of Sacred and Secular Space in Southern New England, 1720-1850,” in Winterthur Portfolio vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring
In May 1786 planning for the new courthouse began and the first session of court was held in September 1787.
On September 11, 1787, the Court of Sessions appointed Azariah Egleston and Elisha Bradley to supervise building the new courthouse.
Other names that would show up frequently in the days of the Lenox early republic, John Bacon and Caleb Hyde were put to supervision of building the jail. It was to be located on Stockbridge Road near what was to become the Winthrop Estate and later the Windsor Mountain School.
The new courthouse was in use by 1791 or 1792. It was located at Walker and Main — about where the current Town Hall is located.
The first courthouse had a two story courthouse** with 12 x 24 pane windows and banked seats for spectators–quite grand for a little farm town.
George Tucker’s manuscript lists public spirited citizens who donated materials or funds. Again, names we see again and again in the early days of Lenox appear on the list: John Paterson, William Walker, Elias Willard, various members of the Nash family, John Whitlock, Lemuel Collins, etc.
Court activity was robust and by 1815 Lenox had outgrown the original court house. The handsome building on Main Street (completed in 1816) currently used as the Lenox Library was the second county court house in Lenox.
27 Housatonic St., First County Courthouse – As It Appeared in 2014
The Fate of the Original Court House
The original simple court house still stands (with later additions and alterations) on Housatonic Street. The, at one time, impressive entrance, now faces Church Street where the coffee shop is attached.
The courthouse was moved to its current location when the new Town Hall was built in 1901.
When the second court house was built, the original court house was re-purposed as a town administration building. It was rotated (using canon balls!) to face Walker Street as the Town Hall does today. It was an active center of 19th century town activity with a bank, post office, and shops.
Good Fortune for Lenox
The early proponents of Lenox as the county seat were far sighted to put money into this important town development. As the center of Berkshire County legal activity, Lenox attracted visitors, professionals and commerce beyond that of the typical 18th-19th century farm town. The presence of the court attracted educated families such as the Sedgwicks who would contribute to turning Lenox into a rural literary and educational center. The presence of the court also created non-farm jobs ranging from working in the Old Red Inn(Curtis) Hotel, renting out horses, clerking and provisioning visitors.
An editorial from the 1830’s* paints a picture of how lively the little town would have been when court was in session:
“Lenox is alive during the administration of Justice. The goddess has occupied her throne here for more than a week past, and our Village had abounded with Judges and Jurors, lawyers and litigants, prosecutors and prosecuted. To us who live in the country, the occasion is quite imposing. It presents to us a vast variety of characters: young attorneys in the bustle of new-found business, and the older ones assuming more and more dignified gravity of the bench; waiting jurymen chatting in little clusters by the wayside; worrying clients complaining of sleepless nights; witnesses of all orders and descriptions. Spectators trading horses in the street and politicians smoking over government affairs in the bar room. Our boarding houses have their long tables lined on both sides with earnest applicants, and all expect more business, more calls, more conversation and more cheerfulness. Messages are sent, and errands done between one end of the county and the other; business accounts are settled, plans laid; caucuses, conventions and singing schools agreed upon; newspapers subscribed for and distant matters in general arranged for the ensuing Winter.”
*Lenox Massachusetts Shire Town, by David H. Wood, published 1969 as a follow up to the Lenox bicentennial
What was the end of the Revolutionary War like in Lenox?
This is another instance where we’ll have to guess from information about the general state of affairs.
Major Fighting Ended in 1781 – Surrender at Yorktown
Cornwallis Surrender at Yorktown 1781This Headline May Have Been Headed to the Hudson Highlands Lauding the Victory at Yorktown and is Dated November 1, 1781
The surrender at Yorktown, October 19, 1781, was not the end of the war, but was the beginning of the end. There’s no reason to think Lenox residents wouldn’t have heard of the victory fairly quickly (by 18th century standards) and have been inclined to lift a glass in celebration.
Lenoxites probably would have known of the arrival of the French fleet and would have been waiting for a major “make or break” military event such as Yorktown
What Would Life Have Been Like During the Late War Years?
After the victory at Saratoga (British General Burgoyne surrendered October 17, 1777), much of the fighting had moved to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and further south. Local militia volunteers likely would have returned to their farms.
The Hudson Highlands and Westchester remained somewhat of a “no-man’s” land with some Tory sympathy but mostly just lawlessness and was the primary location of Gen. Paterson, Joseph Plum Martin and probably the bulk of the Massachusetts soldiers of the Continental Army for the later years of the Revolutionary War.
Would the Continental Army have reached as far afield as the Berkshires to provision the soldiers stationed in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey? Maybe, but the army was penniless, so one could guess that the locals got pretty good at hiding provisions and livestock.
Joseph Plum Martin describes getting his first and only wages in the form of 1200 Continental Dollars on the way to Yorktown. It was only enough to buy a quart of rum! In other words, inflation would have rendered any currency in general circulation more or less worthless. Fortunately, Berkshire County was still largely an agrarian, barter economy.
Smallpox Immunization During the Revolutionary War
Other hardships of war? At the beginning of the war, smallpox was a scourge, but by the end, inoculation was commonplace. Joseph Plum Martin reports numerous outbreaks of influenza and even yellow fever. Fortunately, Lenox probably had some military returnees but a limited concentration to carry these virulent diseases.
Both Paterson and Joseph Plum Martin report the winter of 1779 -1780 as the worst they could remember and meteorological history bears this out.
Rule of law? It’s not clear who was in charge of what, but, other than settlement of international trade, one can imagine that property and criminal law puttered along fairly smoothly. After all, New England towns and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had been governing themselves for some time. In 1780 Massachusetts ratified a new state constitution written largely by John Adams and a model for the 1787 US Constitution.
Although the war probably stalled major investment – and certainly westward movement – local farmers probably continued to improve their landholdings and shelter through promissory notes and or barter.
From Yorktown to 1783 Peace of Paris
One can guess, even in the absence of Pew Polls, that after eight years the population was sick and tired of war. George Washington struggled to hold the starving and unpaid Continental Army together during the tedious two years after Yorktown.
Joseph Plum Martin describes the constant rumors of peace and General Paterson continued to lobby for clothes and food for his troops. Conditions were bad and abetted by boredom and impatience. With his troops wintering in Windsor, NY (near Newburgh), George Washington faced down an officer’s revolt with that bell ringer speech including pulling out his new spectacles and saying,”Gentlemen, you must pardon me. I have grown gray in your service and now find myself growing blind.”
The incident was so moving that many of his officers wept, remembering how much Washington had endured alongside them.
Washington also killed some time during the wait for the peace settlement by inventing the Purple Heart. Strangely it was pretty much ignored after the Revolutionary War until 1932 (lobbied for by that famous publicist Douglas MacArthur).
The Treaty of Paris Granted Territory to the New United States that Would be Settled by Families from New england
The new Whig British government was, fortunately, also anxious to end the War. The British also cleverly realized that granted the fervent American wish for western lands would give them a great source of trade that somebody else had to maintain against Indians and other potential enemies.
1st April 1783: ‘Mustering Out’ at the end of the American Revolution. A line of soldiers queue up to register their discharge from the army. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)
The regular soldiers who had fought under severe hardship, would come home with worthless promissory notes and impoverished families–at least part of the reason for Western Massachusetts’ Shays Rebellion which was to follow.
As Jan Chague points out in her excellent new book, History of Lenox Furnace and Lenox Dale, the official history of Lenox Dale begins with a 500 acre 1739 grant to John Larrabee.
What Did Larrabee Want?
Although the grant was destined to encompass the primary site of greater Lenox’s industrial operations, it is doubtful that potential entered Larrabee’s mind.
Larrabee was awarded the grant (plus some cash)in response to his complaints about not being reimbursed for the expenses he incurred managing Fort William in the Boston Harbor.
It is doubtful he ever saw the place or had any plans for it other than cashing in when land values rose. This, in fact, he did, selling to Charles Goodrich in 1760.
Why Not Industry?
Short answer — too soon. Many of the components for even rural industry were not yet in place.
No Peace – The French and Indian Wars went on until 1763 and made colonists (and investors) fear commitment to western Massachusetts, Vermont and upstate New York.
No Government – Berkshire County was not formed until 1761, and, although there were settlers in Lenox as early as 1751 (Jonathan Hinsdale), the town of Lenox was not founded until 1767.
No Transportation – The Housatonic River this far north was not navigable and Berkshire County had a few footpaths but no roads to speak of in the 1730’s
No Capital – By 1739, the English Industrial Revolution was underway, but the role of the colonies in the British mercantilist scheme was to supply raw materials – not manufactured goods. The colonies had no independent currency or banking system.
Moreover, there is no indication that Larrabee knew of the iron ore deposits in Lenox, Richmond and West Stockbridge that were soon to jump start manufacturing in Lenox Dale.
Subsistence farming was the primary occupation and Larrabee, correctly, was probably counting on settlers to move west, clear the land, and eventually turn it into property suitable for farming.
The groundwork for industry was slowly but surely being laid but wouldn’t be fully in place until after the Revolution.
What was a Loyalist in Lenox? It may have been something different than a loyalist in New York or New Jersey where loyalists were more prevalent and the war was more immediate, but there certainly were at least a handful who did not favor Independence.
Called Tories, Loyalists Opposed Breaking with Britain
Sometimes called Tories, loyalists opposed breaking with Britain and believed the colonists could best achieve their aims by working with Parliament and continuing to respect the laws of King and Parliament. The “Tory” name referenced the parliamentary party opposed to the Whigs who were more pro-American colonies and eventually moved to grant independence. It has been estimated as much as a third of the population during the Revolutionary War were loyalists and that another third were (at least attempted to be) neutral. Within that two thirds there were a range of motivations and behaviors-as there probably were in Lenox.
Some Groups More Predisposed to be Loyalists
The majority of loyalists were Episcopalian but the majority of Episcopalians were not loyalists. Episcopal worship was prohibited in many places since the service at the time included a prayer for the health of the King and the American clergy reported to bishops in England.
In a (humorous in retrospect) tale of over-reaction the Episcopal rector who conducted services for Lenox during the Revolutionary period was arrested in the middle of a wedding and taken to jail! In fact, some of Lenox’s great heroes were Episcopalian and were quite active in Trinity Church after the Revolutionary War including John Paterson, Azirah Eggleston and Linus Parker. Linus, it is said, led the party that captured Lenox loyalist, Gideon Smith (see below).
Men whose wealth and property were closely aligned with the mother country were sometimes – but not always – likely to be loyalists. Wealth did not equate with conservative in this instance. After all, John Hancock, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other leaders of the Revolutionary War were wealthy property owners.
Some Fought for the King Against Their American Neighbors
Recruiting Loyalists for the British Army
At one extreme, some loyalists took up arms almost as quickly as the Patriots and were prepared to fight for and with the British and their German and Indian allies making the Revolution a true civil war. Many were formed into units made up entirely of fellow colonists. Some of these loyalist units became almost like vendetta squads operating outside of the supervision of the British command and seeking compensation for land ceased by patriots or to avenge violence visited on their loyalist friends and relatives by the patriots.
In other cases – as is likely for poor Gideon Smith – the men branded as “Tories,” may just have been trying to stay neutral.
Parliament over-estimated the willingness of colonists to take up arms against their friends and neighbors, but the loyalists were at least a source of manpower and information.
Repercussions of Being a Loyalist
After Independence was declared in 1776 the Massachusetts and other colonies encouraged towns to refuse admission to anyone who was not supportive of the patriot cause and required oaths of allegiance–sometimes (see the story of Gideon Smith below) administered with excessive zeal.
Cartoon of the Revolutionary Area of Patriots “Encouraging” Loyalists to Take the Oath
Cartoon of the Revolutionary Area of Patriots “Encouraging” Loyalists to Take the Oath
There was plenty of arbitrary violence on both sides but this was pretty close to a total war in places like Pennsylvania and New Jersey in that the armies (particularly the British) had to forage for food and fuel. If you were not contributing – manpower, money or food- to the Patriots, you were for all intents and purposes contributing to the English war effort.
As part of the peace settlement loyalists (see John Whitlock below) were given the opportunity for exile and 100,000 or more were transported to Canada when the British left the newly independent colonies.
Poignant Howard Pyle Drawing of Loyalists Being Exiled to Canada
Poignant Howard Pyle Drawing of Loyalists Being Exiled to Canada
Site of Home of John Whitlock
John Whitlock of Lenox appears to have been one of the loyalists in active civil war against his fellow colonists. This is a little confusing since records show multiple John Whitlocks. One (probably the son) built one of the earliest homes in Lenox (1771) on the site of the Village Inn on Church Street and owned much of what is now downtown Lenox. He allegedly oined the British army and ended up losing most of his property and leaving for Canada at the end of the Revolution. Another John Whitlock (probably the father) was either neutral or at least willing to take an oath of loyalty to the patriot cause as a John Whitlock donated the land for the original courthouse and was a vestrymen for Trinity Church.
Another Tory tale from Lenox involves Gideon Smith who lived at what today would be 406 New Lenox Road. The farm was part of a large parcel that had been sold by Israel Williams to David Sears and then to Gideon Smith in 1761. Perhaps it is urban legend but the story is that vigilantes hanged Gideon to choking – several times – until he agreed to the patriot loyalty oath. To avoid further roughing up from the over zealous local patriots, he supposedly hid in Tory Cave on the side of October Mountain. Apparently this is a popular local tale since the 1976 Bicentennial included a float depicted Gideon’s family bringing him food at Tory Cave.
It is easy in hind sight to look at the loyalists as the opposite of “loyal Americans” and to have been foolish to have given up life in the new United States. However, loyalists viewed themselves as the real patriots (remaining loyal to the established government–as did the Union soldiers in the Civil War). And the Revolutionary War remained a close thing that could have gone either way up to the end. The segment of the population (perhaps the majority) probably were trying to figure out where the wind was blowing for all eight years of the Revolutionary War.
See
Tories, Fighting for the King in America’s First Civil War, Thomas B. Allen, Harper Collins e-books
“The History of Tory Cave Farm,” Lenox High School Research Paper from the Lenox Historical Society, by Danielle Dragonetti, May, 2000
The Goodness That Doth Crown Our Days, A History of Trinity Parish, by John Allen Gable, Lenox, Massachusetts, 1993
Before there was Erskine Park there was Larchmont (dated 1879?). We have little information about Erskine Park’s predecessor but we know that George and Marguerite Westinghouse bought the Henry De Bois Schenck farm of 100 acres overlooking Laurel Lake at the Lenox-Lee line. After adding 500
