Daily Life in Colonial Lenox

June 27, 2015 lenoxhistory

Housing in Colonial Lenox

Given the primitive transportation available, housing for the earliest settlers would have been limited to raw materials readily at hand: logs, stone, and clay. Initial houses would have been rudimentary, perhaps with only one room initially with a fire place that would have to double for light, heat and cooking. There may have been a loft for sleeping and generally a dirt floor. Windows, if any, would have been wooden – closing with pegs or rope, or, at best, covered by oil cloth or hides.

House Meeting Settlement Guidelines Re-creation in Williamstown, MA: As the children and grandchildren of early settlers of Westfield, Sheffield and western Connecticut, the Lenox settlers would have known what they had to do to make corn meal, hunt for game, find wild berries and herbs, and slaughter and smoke their meat. Their parents or grandparents would have created similar shelters for the first phase of their housing. They probably would have had a treasured metal pot and metal crane for cooking, melting ice, etc.

Mission House Stockbridge - Finer Than the Average Colonial Home — Mission House Stockbridge – Far Finer Than the Average Colonial Home

Settlers would upgrade housing, crops and livestock . Settlers would have upgraded to frame houses with stone foundations as soon as quickly as money or more readily available resources permitted. However, the original log house would stand into the 19th century. We can only speculate, but in the increasingly secular and commercial Colonial era, ambitious families were probably as anxious to display their wealth in their homes as they are today.

Wealthier settlers could have accelerated the timing of upgrading (or skipped over the rudimentary shelter phase completely) with the ability to pay for transportation of materials and servants to accelerate the labor of clearing, hauling in goods from the outside and building. The skills to build what we think of as a colonial house would have been readily available and some of Lenox’s proprietors lived in nearby towns where they might have stayed until their new Lenox frame houses were available. Upgrading also would have involved creating shelter for animals and, in many cases, a workshop for the artisan work performed on many farms.

collections bidwell house — From the Bidwell House Collection – Items that Might Have Been Brought in From Urban Centers in Colonial Days

Panelling, cabinets and tables could have been built locally. Pewter, tin and iron housewares (pots, hooks, pitchers, mugs) could have been manufactured by nearby artisans.

2010 December Statement WFA — The Bidwell House Dining Room – Not the Furnishings of the Average Farmer!

Poorer families would have used more wood and clay for utensils and housewares. However, the glassware, windows, china, chairs, bedclothes and tableware we associate with historic Colonial houses would have to have been imported from urban areas and transported in.

More Food Options Had Started to become Available

Textiles and Clothing

The average housewife would have learned how to make linen (from flax) and wool thread and might have bartered to get it woven in a nearby homestead with access to a loom.

Wealthier households could buy textiles including imported materials such as cotton and silk as well as manufactured items such as metal buttons and buckles. Nearby hatters and tanners could have supplied the average household with jerkins, hats and belts. Dress would have become more elaborate than in the 17th century(although still quite simple by modern standards) and more differentiated by class. The larger landowners, the lawyers and the minister might have sported clothing with manufactured buttons and belt clasps and have worn wigs.

Layers were the order of the day with a ubiquitous undershirt with various levels of outer garments, hats, scarves, collars or ruffles depending on the temperature, the sex and the class. Children would have been dressed as miniature adults.

Colonial Era Economy

As soon as they were able, households would generally have at least one cow, sheep, a pig and some geese or chickens. If farmers didn’t have a team of oxen they would trade services to use a neighbor’s team. Some farmers would have a cart or a horse – but horses were still somewhat of a luxury.

Households without servants to help with the planting, clearing and household work would have sought help from immediate family, gather extended kin or barter for help from neighbors. Either through exchange or cash from market days, any surplus of cheese from cows, eggs from hens, or smoked meat might have been exchanged for help in plowing and harvesting or for tools, tin mugs, woven homespun wool and linen, shoes, cured hides, nails or andirons – etc. – items that other farmers might be making at home for exchange.

Most homes would acquire the ability to make tallow candles and spins yarn. Money as we know it would still have been in short supply and to the degree it could be obtained would have been used to buy land, pay taxes, or purchase goods manufactured or harvested elsewhere including glass, fabric, guns, books, paper, salt, tobacco or tea.

The Farmer’s Wife Would Have a Garden for Her Home and for Market If Possible Food choices would have expanded from early days but still would have been primarily what could be grown and preserved locally. Nearby mills would have been used to grind corn into meal (later wheat). Apple trees would have been widely planted and, in addition, to eating and baking, apples would have been widely used for cider and vinegar.
: Honey and maple syrup would have been the primary sweeteners – sugar being an imported luxury. Rum and other distilled spirits my not have been made locally at first but were widely available in the region. Tobacco, tea, coffee and cocoa would have been popular but an imported luxury. A key to lifting the family above subsistence level would have been developing goods to barter or sell — a surplus difficult to come by in the hardscrabble growing conditions of the Berkshires.; A more popular way to have access to manufactured or imported items would be to have a side trade – often practiced in the farmhouse or in a side shed that could be sold for cash. Examples might have included: tin work, shoe making, leather smith, or blacksmithing. Many homes would have acquired a spinning wheel but not all would have looms to weave yarn into cloth. Work on these side trades probably would have been concentrated during times when the farmer didn’t have to be out planting or harvesting.; There would have been a handful of what we would, today, call “professionals” – the minister, a lawyer (who would probably have been kept very busy with property changing hands constantly!) and a doctor. The doctor may have been more like an apothecary. It’s highly likely there also would have been a woman accepted as the best at helping in delivery of babies – the midwife.; Social Life; In addition to Church, there would have been social occasions (probably accompanied by locally distilled malt ale or hard cider) for wedding feasts (not weddings if the Puritan tradition still held), roof raising, market days or militia drill. We have evidence of considerable interaction with other Berkshire communities in the protests culminating in the Revolution–meetings in Pittsfield, Sheffield and correspondence with counterparts in the Connecticut River Valley and Boston. Also, Lenox residents would have had many kinship ties in other Berkshire, Connecticut River and Housatonic River Valley towns. Certainly, with a growing population and improved transportation, Lenox would have been rapidly leaving its isolated frontier status behind by 1775.; Daily Life in Colonial New England, Claudia Durst Johnson, Greenwood Press, Daily Life History SeriesDaily Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, George Francis Dow, Arno Press, A New York Times Company, New York, 1977Early Life in Sheffield Berkshire County, Massachusetts, A Portrait of Its Ordinary People from Settlement to 1860, James R. Miller, Sheffield Historical Society 2002The History of Pittsfield 1734-1800, J.E.A. Smith, Lee and Shepherd, 1869History of Lenox, George Tucker ManuscriptEast Street Book, Lenox Historical Society – 1987

Resources

History Detective at Bidwell House

June 13, 2015 lenoxhistory

Yes the Bidwell House is in Monterey, but like many historic homes in Lenox it requires intelligent intervention to remain standing and to be true to its historic heritage. Not an easy task as we learned at a June 13, 2015 presentation at Bidwell House on how its preservation plan was developed.

Bidwell House Background

Bidwell House, 1762 (?), Monterey, MA — Bidwell House, 1750 (?), Monterey, MA

Bidwell House had the good fortune to be left relatively undisturbed as a farm house until 1911 and then, in the 1960’s to have been meticulously restored by James Hargis and David Brush (who donated the property for its current use as a museum). The result is that 90% of the house is thought to be original.

Bidwell House Executive Director Barbara Palmer

Nonetheless, it needed a new roof this year and the Bidwell House Museum Association used this opportunity to get an extensive historic survey and preservation plan done through a Mass Preservation Plan grant.

Difficult Restoration Choices

The Birthing Room, Bidwell House - Original Fireplace and Paneling — The Birthing Room, Bidwell House – Original Fireplace and Paneling

The dilemma in stabilizing and fixing a 250+ year old house is to identify what the original design, colors and materials were.

To make the right choices, the Great Barrington architect Steve McCallister brought in historic preservation expert Bill Rose of Rose and French–really a history detective.

Preservationist Bill Rose Showing One of the Places Where He Obtained a Color Sample

The materials available for this detective work included photos from the early 20th century when the Carrington family sold the house, some photos from the 1920’s era as a summer art school and from the 1950’s when the house was a summer home for a Minnesota family and a recorded interview with the late Jack Hargis who had done the 1960’s restoration.

Much as in “CSI” and “Bones”, samples of wood planing are compared against the output of saws and planers from different eras. Also nail technology has changed over the years and can give a good indication of age. Sometimes Bill Rose was using indentations of former nail holes to make a determination. Dendrochronology, tree ring dating, has not been very helpful in this area because comparative data is limited.

Again similar to modern forensics, a pinpoint drill of wall is taken and sliced so the paint can be viewed under a microscope.

Deduction and comparison are also tools of the history detective. Bill was able to the date of the El addition based on the weathering of the shingles where the addition overlapped the original house. Deductions can also be made based on the appearance of new styles and technology in other houses. Much as we see today, kitchens tended to be renovated every 20 or 30 years as new ways to heat food were developed.

Places

Negotiating Purchase of Lot 8

June 3, 2015 lenoxhistory Leave a comment

Lot 8 Put Up for Sale in 1762

Although the French and Indian Wars would not officially end until 1763, things had turned sufficiently favorable for the English that, by June 1762, the Royal government in Boston was anxious to get the wild new county of Berkshire settled. In June 1762 the General Court put Lot #8 (which would later be split into Richmond and Lenox) up for sale. It was not destined to be a smooth or easy process.

First Bidder Josiah Dean

A response came quickly from Josiah Dean* of Canaan (unfortunately the records currently available don’t say if that was Canaan, NY or CT.) bid 2350 pounds as of June 11, 1762 and paid a 20 pound bond to assure performance of all requirements. (A Josiah Dean of Canaan, NY went on to become a leader in the Revolutionary War.)

* With Asa Douglas, Timothy Holobeard, John Ashley, Ellijah Williams, Aaron Sheldon, and John Chadwick

Negotiations with the Indians

Meanwhile, the Indians complained that the 1000 pounds they had already received from the General Court did not represent appropriate compensation for their property. The General Court took the amount up first to 1500 pounds then to 1700 pounds. Another 650 pounds was to be delivered on actually relinquishing the land. The record is a bit unclear on this point, but the extra 650 may have been thrown in by Samuel Brown, Jr. to tip the deal in his direction.

Samuel Brown, Jr. of Stockbridge lead a bid (as agent for a group**) against the Dean bid and offered a bond of 650 pounds (not sure if same or different than the 650 referenced above) toward purchase as of Feb. 17, 1763. Among other things, Samuel Brown, Jr. claimed his group had already paid the Indians for the property. Samuel Brown, Jr. was the son of one of the English families allowed to settle in Stockbridge. His father had been among the English of Stockbridge involved in one of many fast stepping land deals that reduced the Indian holdings. Father and son had both occupied many town offices in Stockbridge and Samuel Brown, Jr. appears in numerous other land and proprietor records.

**Proprietors as of first and second round of grants – the Brown Group (according to Colonial Registry of Deeds)

Daniel Allen, Moses Ashley, Jacob Bacon, Issac Brown, Jonathan Bull, Christopher Cartwright, Samuel Churchill, Titus Curtis, Israel Dewey, Israel Dewey, Jr., Solomon Glezen, Charles Goodrich, Samuel Goodrich, Eleanor Gunn, Jonathan Hough, Timothy Treat, Ashbel Treat, John Ingersoll, Daniel Jones, Elijah Jones, Josiah Jones, Josiah Jones, Jr., Joseph Lee, Edward Martindale, Elisha Martindale, Gershom Martindale, Stephen Nash, Stephen Nash, Jr. Moses Nash, Asa Noble, David Pixley, David Pixley, Jr. Abraham Root, Abel Rowe, Ezra Whittlesey

Samuel Brown Group Won Bidding for Lot 8

But the award of the bid to Brown may have been partly due to second thoughts on the part of the Dean group. Perhaps after making the bid, Dean and some of his party came to Lot# 8 to check out their woody, hilly purchase and found another problem. According to the report in the Registry of Deeds,

“Asa Douglas of Canaan, agent of Josiah Dean, some of the grantees began improvement and brought action of trespass against the Indians for refusing to move. ‘divers persons in possession of the township lying between Stockbridge and Pittsfield under a pretended title from the Stockbridge Indians and as the affair of their removal at this present time may be attended with difficulty and inasmuch as the said Josiah Dean hath agreed to release into the Province the sale of the said township.'”

Dean was given 2000 acres elsewhere – and got his 20 pound deposit back.

Lot 8 Split Into Mt. Ephraim and Yokuntown

On February 26, 1767, the proprietors of Mt. Ephraim and Yokuntown were given permission to split the town along the mountains that made it difficult to administer Lot 8 as one town. The easterly part was given the name Lenox. It was supposed to be “Lennox” in honor of the Duke of Richmond but somewhere along the line a spelling error became permanent and it has been Lenox ever since.

George Tucker Manuscript, History of Lenox

Colonial Records and Proprietary Plans, Berkshire Middle District Registry of Deeds

Lenox Massachusetts Shire Town, by David Wood, Published by the Town, 1969

Places

Lenox Land Grants and Holdings Prior to Town Establishment

May 28, 2015 lenoxhistory Leave a comment

Lenox Land Grants

Many of the grants made prior to the formation of Berkshire County were in what would become Lenox.

The land that would comprise Lenox and Richmond was auctioned as Lot 8 by the Royal Colony General Court in 1762. But, the land that was being auctioned for what would become Lenox was only about half the total acerage – the rest had already been bought or distributed as grants. The Indians believed themselves to be holders of most of the rest. Here is a brief description of the situation at the time of the Lot 8 auction.

1. The Ministers Grant (~4,000 acres)* –

Mohegan Sachem Konkaput had given a Dutch interpreter quite a few acres of meadowland along the river in Stockbridge. Then the interpreter fell into debt, and borrowed 100 pounds from John Sergeant (the Stockbridge Minister) with land as security. The Dutchman then sold, for 450 pounds, to a group that offered to trade (finalized in 1741-1742) 280 acres of this land for 4,000 acres of woodland to the north east (Lenox). The group consisted of: Ephraim Williams – 900 acres plus a 130 acre pond, Nehemiah Bull 700 acres; and the remainder to Stephen Williams, Samuel Hopkins, John Sergeant, Timothy Woodbridge, Jonathan Edwards (John Stoddard’s nephew) and Peter Reynolds.

In my opinion a group of pretty sharp operators.

By the time Lenox was officially established, a number of these grants had been passed to heirs.

2. Grants from the Royal Colony in Recognition of Service to the State (~2500 Acres)

The Quincy Grant – In 1737 Edmund Quincy was appointed to a commission to resolve the Massachusetts border with New Hampshire and he traveled to London on this mission where he contracted smallpox and died. In return for his service his family was, in 1739, awarded 1,000 acres in what would become Lenox.
The Larrabee Grant – 500 acres in 1739 to Capt . John Larrabee for service and expense of managing Fort William (Boston Harbor.) The grant comprises much of what would become Lenox Furnace/ Lenox Dale.
The Stevens Grant – 250 acres in 1756 for the support of the widow and children of Capt. Phineas Stevens. Capt. Stevens had, with 30 militia men, held off put to 700 French and Indians during King George’s War, at Fort Number 4 – the northernmost British outpost on the Connecticut River in modern day Charleston, NH, on the border with modern day Vermont.
The Lawrence Grant – 353 acres granted in 1758 to compensate for land given to New Hampshire when the new border was drawn.
The Woodbridge Grant – In 1759, some of the Stockbridge Indians, lead by Jehoiakim Yokun, granted Timothy Woodbridge 350 acres in gratitude for his services as schoolmaster.

3. Indian Claims on the remaining land – estimate roughly 6,000-7,000 additional acres – The King viewed all unclaimed land as his to dispense or sell, but the Royal Colony had accepted the appropriateness of treating the land as a “purchase” from the Indians for the sake of peace. Purchase is in quotes here because, in most cases, the purchase price was heavily discounted to ceremonial. In the case of Lenox, the Indian land claims were actively defended. Perhaps the Indians realized values were going up as the land was cleared and settled. In the early days of the Stockbridge reservation (1739-1745) Jehoiakim Yokun and another Indian bought all the unsold land between Stockbridge and Pittsfield from fellow tribesmen for 12 pounds. He and other principal families claimed land throughout western Massachusetts (p. 52)* . It is not know This may be the man for whom “Yokuntown” (Lenox) was originally named.

The Indians had clearly learned a thing or two from their sharp dealing English allies since, by 1761, it took three escalating offers, to get the Indians to sell the lands they held in Lenox.

Net: The buyers of Lot 8 weren’t dealing with untouched territory. Clarifying existing property lines, establishing titles and dealing with households that may have settled without title would have been complicated and expensive. It’s not completely clear whether these costs would have been bourne by the buyers (the proprietors) or the sellers (the Royal Colony government.) Undoubtedly, as in modern real estate transactions, there would have been a need for individuals wit the contacts and expertise to work the government angle, the property law angle and negotiate with sellers ranging from Indians to competitive English landowners. Probably the successful fixers were well connected and good at skating on the edge of what would be considered ethical by modern standards.

*The Mohicans of Stockbridge, Patrick Frazier, University of Nebraska Press, 1992

Also see:

George Tucker Manuscript: A History of Lenox

Middle County Berkshire Registry of Deeds, Colonial Records

Places

The Establishment of Berkshire County

May 18, 2015 lenoxhistory

Berkshire County was established in 1761 — almost a hundred years after Hamshire (later Hamden, Hampshire and Franklin) County to the East. Why establish a new Massachusetts county at all? Why so much later than the rest of the state?

Objectives of Settlement Included Defense ad Revenue

By 1761, the last of the French and Indian wars were winding down, but the English administration had no way of knowing they were going to end up controlling the northeast of what would become the United States. So, settlement created an obstacle for potential continued raids by the French and their Indian allies. It also led to road building and increased trade On the flip side, the winding down of potential raids with the English capture of Quebec September 13, 1759, made settlement along the Hudson and the Housatonic more attractive.

untitled-1 — At the time the county was founded, “official” towns were limited to upper and lower Housatonic, and Poontusuck. Although Poontusuck had been temporarily abandoned drinking the French and Indian War.

As we discussed in the history of Sheffield, New York landholders claimed southwestern Massachusetts based on purchases 1685-1704 from the Indians called the Westenhook patent. At one time, New York claimed their boundary ran to the Connecticut River. As indicated by the map below, there was still, as of 1761, controversy about the border remained.

Early Berkshire County Potential Townships

Settlement, the royal Massachusetts government reasoned, would help establish the border. In fact, the Massachusetts-New York border was not finally settled until a 1787 survey done by David Rittenhouse and Thomas Hutchins.

Detail of the early county map shows the land grants that had been given out prior to the establishment of Berkshire County. Many of them fell into what would become Lenox.

Finally, settlement meant revenue for the commonwealth from land sales and income from settlers. The Stamp Act was coming and the English were scrambling to pay for the French and Indian War.

The Wild West

Because of the fear of raids, the border disputes–and of course– the mountains Berkshire County remained largely unsettled. What would become Lenox had only a handful of families at the time. In Beer’s History of Berkshire County (page 66)* a 1744 Berkshire County population of 500 is estimated. We have not yet found a source for an estimate as of 1761 but 1,000 would be a reasonable guess based on the 1744 population. As shown below, settlement was still limited primarily to Sheffield and Stockbridge. Poontoosuc (later Pittsfield) had been settled then temporarily abandoned during the last French and Indian War.

The other demarcations show grants made to individuals. Many of them would be incorporated into what would later become Lenox.

Trails had only begun to be improved to be anything like roads. Anything that wasn’t swamp or rock was dense original growth forest with only a few meadows along the rivers.* The hearty initial settlers would have to have been good with an ax if they intended to farm.

The Governor Makes it Official

gov bernard_191 — Sir Francis Bernard (1712-1777

Francis Bernard (Sir Francis Bernard, the title granted after his return to England) was the royal governor of Massachusetts from 1760-1768.

He had an interesting history including being awarded Mount Dessert Island (Maine was then part of Massachusetts at the time) for his service. HIs service was an illustration of the close circle of patronage of Colonial posts in North America. His neighbor in England, Thomas Pownall had been an earlier governor of Massachusetts and his wife was a cousin of Lord Barrington who became Privy Councilor in 1755. Sir Francis had been governor of New Jersey 1758-1760.

The merit of his appointment can be questioned in retrospect. His strict and harsh enforcement of the Navigation Acts, the Sugar Act and other revenue acts contributed to the Revolution. He sought to have British troops stationed in Boston and was finally recalled in 1769 after publication of letters in which he criticized the Colonies.

One can imagine him being petitioned by the General Assembly and whatever the lobbyists of the time were to encourage settlement of the western part of the state. Landowners and speculators, among others, would have been interested in improving the value of their holdings.

Berkshire County UKVirginiaWater_AerialView — Berkshire County, UK; Great Windsor Park

He named the new county for the county of his birth in England. In 1974 the town of his birth, Brightwell-cum- Sotwell became part of Oxfordshire. In southeastern England, Berkshire is one of the oldest counties in England (thought to date from the 840’s) and is the home of Windsor Castle.

*History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men, Vol. I, edited by Mr. J.E.A. Smith, J.B. Beers & Co. New York, 1885

People, The Big Picture

Transportation and Settlement for Early Lenox Settlers

May 18, 2015 lenoxhistory

Life for Early Lenox Settlers

We have not yet found first person accounts of what greeted the early settlers (say 1750’s) but we can make some educated guesses based on accounts from similar settlements. The Berkshires, particularly in the Lenox area, had been used more for hunting than cultivation by the Indians, so there would not, as there had been in the eastern part of the state, have been any prior clearing. Most land would have been heavily wooded with original growth forest and probably thick with underbrush. Without clearing, food was limited to hunting and gathering.

Clearing Trees

Initial clearing was generally done by girdling the trees, felling them and letting the stumps die off. While the land was still full of stumps, it would have been difficult to grow wheat or other European crops. Probably, therefore, initial agriculture would have been to grow native plants such as corn, beans and pumpkins and raise livestock that could live by foraging – such as pigs and goats. This would have been so much work that the settler probably would have cleared a couple of acres one year, then a few more the next. Obviously meadowland or previously cleared land was at a premium. Reportedly, by 1800, the land was bare of trees!

Timber was potentially a cash crop. It could be sold for planing into planks, for ship masts, for pitch or for fuel. However, it’s not clear that there was, in the earliest days, a way to get raw logs to market. Felled trees may have just been used to build rudimentary log shelters and for fuel. One source* reports it took an acre of timber to heat a family for a year!

Travel and Transportation of Goods

Would Have Come to Pontoosuck on Narrow Trails Through the Woods — Early Would Have Come to Berkshire County on Narrow Trails Through the Woods

Accounts of initial settlement of Sheffield and Pittsfield report individuals coming to clear their lots on paths that could barely accommodate one person or horse single file. In that condition any goods (from farm tools, to nails, to blankets and clothing) would have to have been carried in on the back of a horse or a man. Enough improvement in roads to accommodate an ox cart would have allowed settlers to bring in goods made nearby such as nails, planed planks, tools and ground corn. Goods manufactured outside of the rural Berkshires – such as bricks, cloth, guns, glass, books and paper – would have to have been moved from a port city; perhaps up the Hudson and then over and up from the road through Great Barrington?

It is not yet clear what roads might have been available. Early plot plans for Mt. Epraim/Yokuntown show some county roads (presumably these could have accommodated carts or other means of hauling goods), but we have not yet found a date for when these roads would have been cleared. The county roads (whenever they were put in) appear to have connected Sheffield, Great Barrington, Stockbridge and Poontusuck (Pittsfield) – much as Route 7 does today.

Early Farming and Industry

The settlers might or might not have had oxen or other work animals. Horses were generally a luxury for the wealthy and many farmers would have had to borrow (in return for some other bartered favor or crops) the use of farm animals to haul goods and break the soil. Cattle and sheep would become important sources for both sustenance and sale. But in the early days, foraging animals such as goats or pigs would have been most common. They probably would have been driven in from of the walking or riding settlers and allowed to wander freely (with notched ears or other markers of ownership).

Setting up mills for planing logs, forging iron, and grinding corn and other grains would have been a priority. Maps from the 1790’s show several mills in Lenox. Until mills became available, settlers would have had to transport raw materials to Stockbridge or other towns settled earlier to have them worked.

Initial houses would have been windowless and rudimentary, perhaps with only one room initially with a fire place that would have to double for light, heat and cooking. There may have been a loft for sleeping and generally a dirt floor.

Settlers would have upgraded to frame houses with stone foundations as soon as they could, but often the original log house would stand into the 19th century.

As the children and grandchildren of early settlers of Westfield, Sheffield and western Connecticut, the Lenox settlers would have known what they had to do to make corn meal, hunt for game, find wild berries and herbs, and slaughter and smoke their meat. Their parents or grandparents would have created similar shelters for the first phase of their housing. They probably would have had a treasured metal pot and metal crane for cooking, melting ice, etc.

Settlers would upgrade housing, crops and livestock as quickly as money or more readily available resources permitted.

See

Daily Life in Colonial New England, Claudia Durst Johnson, Greenwood Press, Daily Life History Series

Daily Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, George Francis Dow, Arno Press, A New York Times Company, New York, 1977

Early Life in Sheffield Berkshire County, Massachusetts, A Portrait of Its Ordinary People from Settlement to 1860, James R. Miller, Sheffield Historical Society 2002

The History of Pittsfield 1734-1800, J.E.A. Smith, Lee and Shepherd, 1869

People, People and Places

Margaret Emerson, Holmwood, and Ventfort Hall

May 11, 2015 lenoxhistory 3 Comments

On May 9, 2015, Cornelia (Nini) Gilder, co author of Houses of the Berkshires*, gave a great talk at Ventfort Hall about Margaret Emerson McKim Vanderbilt Baker Amory (1884-1960).

Local Connections

In a clear case of six degrees of separation, Nini shared a photo of Margaret as a Red Cross Director at Hickam Field in Hawaii. Nini had the photo because Margaret (now going by “Mrs. Emerson”) had been Nini’s mother’s boss during WWII. In the spirit of that remarkable coincidence, Nini sported her mother’s natty Red Cross uniform for part of her talk (with a photo of Margaret in the background).

Margaret’s management experience came from supervising her 20+ servants, multiple households…. and lots of money.

MargaretEmersonVanderbilt — Margaret Emerson as a Young Beauty

To Begin…Rich and Beautiful

We can only hope that someday Margaret’s colorful, old money life gets made into the movie it deserves. Before marrying money, it helps to start beautiful and with a fortune of your own. Margaret was heir to the Bromo-Seltzer (started in Baltimore by her father) fortune and married a wealthy Baltimore physician, Dr. McKim. She went to Reno to obtain a divorce, on the grounds of cruelty and failure to provide**, in 1910. She wed fabulously wealthy Alfred Vanderbilt in London in 1911. One source reported that Dr. McKim was on the verge of bringing an alienation of affections suit against Vanderbilt (whose first wife had divorced him claiming adultery) but was paid $200,000 by Margaret’s father to drop the suit**. (You can’t make this stuff up.)

4_Park_Avenue_Vanderbilt_Hotel — Vanderbilt Hotel, Built 1913, 4 Park Avenue

A grandson of family patriarch, Commodore Vanderbilt, Alfred was a sportsman and coaching enthusiast but also made a few decent real estate deals such as the Vanderbilt Hotel. (It helps if your family’s holdings include a home on what would become Park Avenue and Grand Central.)

In 1901 Alfred had purchased a magnificent Adirondack Lodge at Sagamore Lake. It would remain in Margaret’s family until 1954 and be the site for entertainment of notables such as Gary Cooper, Jerome Kern and General George Marshall.***

Alfred had two children, Alfred II (1912-1999) and and George III (1914-1961) with Margaret before sailing on the doomed Lusitania, in 1915, for an the Annual Meeting of the Horse Breeder’s Association and to bring supplies to the Red Cross. A gentleman to the end, Alfred allegedly perished after giving his life jacket to a woman who could not find hers.

The Widow Comes to Lenox

The widow would have been familiar with Lenox as a visitor to her husband’s cousin (Emily Vanderbilt Sloane – Elm Court) as well as other society cottagers. Mrs. Sloane’s daughter (Lila Vanderbilt Sloane Field) was a good friend would become a neighbor having built High Lawn in 1909. So it is not surprising that Margaret chose, a month after her husband’s death to come to Lenox where she rented a modest summer place – Shadow Brook. In 1916 she had to find new quarters as the property had been sold to Andrew Carnegie who could no longer, because of the war, go back and forth to his castle in Scotland.

From 1916 to 1917 she rented Ventfort Hall. Nini had several pictures of the children enjoying the grounds including a birthday party photo that included Nini’s mother.

Erskine Park and Holmwood

Erskine Park_NEW — Erskine Park Which Was Razed to Make Room for Holmwood

Erskine Park had been built for George and Marguerite Westinghouse in 1890 and was, by 1911, surrounded by 600 landscaped acres. Margaret bought the property on the condition that the elaborately decorated house be razed.

Holmwood (Later Foxhollow and More Recently Enlighten Next)

She went right to work to build a brand new Delano and Aldrich designed Colonial Revival home with a large music room and portico. She particularly liked the fact that the grounds included space for croquet, tennis, and a gymnasium for the boys. Nice pad for a few weeks a year (since the family also lived in Palm Beach, New York, and the Great Sagamore). Holmwood, named for a spot in England that was the site of a memorial to Alfred Vanderbilt, was sold to the Foxhollow School for Girls in 1939.

More Husbands and More Adventures

MargaretmarriesBaker — Margaret Wed Raymond Baker at Holmwood in June 1918

Margaret barely made it into Holmwood in time to marry husband #3, Raymond T. Baker (1875-1935). In another “you can’t make this stuff up,” she had met Baker in Reno when she was getting a divorce from husband #1. One of the social columns** reported, before she married Alfred, that “Mrs. McKim created quite a stir in San Francisco on one occasion when she departed for the orient, waving kisses to Ray Baker, the novelist and clubman, when the steamer left the dock.” They had a daughter, Gloria (1920-1975).

Ever the Sportswoman, Margaret (Left) at Saratoga

They divorced in October 1928. Not one to let the grass grow under her feet, Margaret married husband #4, Charles Minot Amory (he was from Boston – they had met in Palm Beach) in November 1928. They divorced several years later.

*Houses of the Berkshires, 1870-1930, by Richard Jackson Jr. and Cornelia Brooke Gilder, Acanthus Press, New York, 2006

**San Francisco Call, Volume 112, Number 115, September 23, 1912, “New Vanderbilt Heir is Born, Stork Crowns Reno Divorce.”

***greatsagamorecamp.org

Also Wikipedia on Alfred Vanderbilt

The Big Picture

The 7 Year’s War (1756-1763) and the Berkshires

May 1, 2015 lenoxhistory

Frequently known as the French and Indian War, this was actually the fourth in a series of conflicts, stretching over 85 years*. Unlike the three earlier conflicts between the English and French in North America

-this conflict was a true world war involving Europe, India, the Caribbean and North America (earlier wars had been more focused on Europe)

-Great Britain committed major resources to defend her North American colonies (in contrast to the earlier wars in which the English colonists were left largely to fend for themselves.)

-Major territories in North America would change hands leaving most of North America East of the Mississippi in English hands.

This war would have direct consequences for the Berkshires:

-the fear level was high enough that what few settlers were in Lenox fled to Stockbridge when there was an attack by a couple of Indians

-the peace resulted in settlement (finally) being encouraged in the westernmost part of the state

-many of the male settlers (historians estimate as many as 30% of adult males would have served at least one tour of duty) would have had the experience of serving under a British military commander (and would take out their resentments 12 years later!)

By the 1750’s many Colonial families would have been away from Great Britain and used to managing their own affairs for 120 years and had developed their own distinct code of conduct. Troops, navy, and other overt manifestations of kingly authority had been absent in prior fighting.

-these men would have traveled widely (through New York to Quebec, in Nova Scotia) and would have formed bonds with fellow Massachusetts and Connecticut settlers

-Great Britain tried to recoup the considerable cost of the war in North America with a series of initiatives that would be among the causes of the Revolution (Stamp Act, Townsend Act., etc).

This war actually started in North America when a brash 22 year old colonial named George Washington attacked the French at Fort Duquense (later Pittsburgh)

George Washington in his Virginia Regimental Uniform (Portrait by Charles Wilson Peale)

By this time English colonists numbered about 1.5MM, French only 75,000 heavily concentrated along the St Lawrence, Nonetheless, the war went badly for the British at first (see James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans for a famous fictional account of the ravaging of Fort William Henry on Lake George) due to the effectiveness of France’s Indian allies and poor leadership on the part of Great Britain.

With renewed commitment to the colonies from Prime Minister Pitt and an able commander in Jeffrey Amherst, the situation turned around and the British conquered Quebec. In final treaties, the British won Canada and most of what would become the United States East of the Mississippi (which was, given the value of the sugar trade at the time, considered of equal value with Guadalupe and Martinique). Many of the colonies felt entitled to land with an indeterminate western border and were miffed that the Ohio valley was forbidden to them and was to be held as a reserve for the Indians.

See great article by Carole Owens on the Seven Years War in Stockbridge

Google “French and Indian War,” 2014

U.S History.org

Mass Moments

The French and Indian War, Deciding the Fate of North America, by Walter R. Borneman, Harper Collins e-books

Places

Bellefontaine

April 12, 2015 lenoxhistory

Bellefontaine Talk by Richard Jackson at Ventfort Hall

Richard Jackson Talk on Bellefontaine at Ventfort Hall April 11, 2015

Bellefontaine was built in 1896-1898 for Giraud and Jean Foster. Giraud Foster (born in 1851) lived at Bellefontaine until his death in 1945 and could be considered to have watched over the sunset of Lenox’s Gilded Age.

The estate was sold in 1946 and burned in 1949. The fire destroyed most of the interior but the shell remained and the mansion was rebuilt. It has taken on a new life as a key part of Canyon Ranch.

Bellefontaine after 1949 Fire — Bellefontaine after 1949 Fi

The talk included personal reminiscences from Giraud Foster’s granddaughter Jane.

Granddaughter Judy Foster and Great grandson Giraud Foster. — Granddaughter Jane Foster and Great Grandson Giraud Lorber at Ventfort Hall

Estate and Treasures Part of a Prototypical Gilded Age Life

Postcard of Bellefontaine in all its Glory - Rear Entrance — Postcard of Bellefontaine in all its Glory – Rear Entrance

Carrere & Hastings were the architects.

They designed the New York Public Library and the Newport home of Mrs. Foster’s sister, Anna Van Nest Gambrill. In keeping with the recreational rhythm of the Gilded Age, the Fosters spent summers in Newport and Mrs. Gambrill (and others) spent fall in Lenox. Of course there were trips in between to Palm Beach; Aiken, South Carolina; and the south of France.

The pillared rear entrance showed some obeisance to the Petit Trianon at Versailles and the interior was furnished in the manner of various Louis’s.

Venetian Glass and Other Bellefontaine Treasures on Display at Ventfort Hall

The landscape included statuary (most of which was subsequently destroyed by one of the religious orders that took over the building after Foster’s death), formal gardens and a large greenhouse complex.

Extensive Greenhouse Complex part of the Responsibility of Mr. Jenkins, the Superintendent — Extensive Greenhouse Complex part of the Responsibilities of Mr. Jenkins, the Superintendent.

A Life from Another Time

Although Giraud Foster’s fortune at the time Bellefontaine was constructed was attributed to coal, the Foster family had had a flourishing business in the clipper ship era (some of the tableware from China is in the Ventfort Hall exhibit). The Giraud name traced back to Huguenots who were among the earliest settlers of New York and Jean Van Nest Foster was from an old Dutch family with wealth and property of its own.

Jean Van Nest had suffered from rheumatic fever when she and Giraud met so they delayed marriage until he was 43, she 32. The birth of their one child more than ten years later was a surprise. The younger Giraud, known as “Boy” when young, was Jane Foster’s father. Jean predeceased Giraud in 1932.

One of the Famous Birthday Parties with the younger Giraud ("Boy") Standing Behind his Father — One of the Famous Birthday Parties with the younger Giraud (“Boy”) Standing Behind his Father

Giraud continued to live a life Downtown Abbey fans would appreciate as a horseman, regular attendee at Trinity Church, and head of the Lenox Club and Mahkeenac Boating Club. He was an avid bridge player and was famed for his birthday parties.

See The Houses of the Berkshires, 1870-1930, Richard S. Jackson Jr. and Cornelia Brooke Gilder, Acanthus Press

Places

Easter Fire on Lenox Main Street 1909

April 8, 2015 lenoxhistory

The Lenox Easter Fire

The Easter Fire on Lenox Main Street on April 11, 1909 changed the face of Lenox Main Street and cost six people their lives.

The area now occupied by the Village Shopping Center included, before the fire, the wooden buildings shown here. They housed Clifford & Sons which stocked the turpentine, paints and oils thought to be the source of the fire.

11103246_953547778002468_3029941433706867843_o — The Mahanna Building Was Gutted but Rebuilt and is Now the Shops and Apartments of 74 Main

Fire Burned From Main to Church

The fire burned all the way back to Church St. and destroyed the Clifford building shown above, the Bull buildings and the residences of Joseph Gilbert, and Mrs. Rose Colbert and some smaller structures.

11095595_953548181335761_6278844651788077335_o — Looking Back Toward Main from Church Street

Lives and Property Lost

Here’s an excerpt from the April 12 special to the New York Times:

Six persons were killed in the fire which almost wiped out the business section of Lenox early this morning. Four business blocks and two dwellings were destroyed. The property loss is estimated at $250,000, with insurance of $111,000. New Yorkers who were at the Curtis Hotel on an Easter visit helped persons driven from their homes.

The six persons who were killed were asleep in the Clifford Building, a three-story structure, when the fire started.

They were:

COOK, Miss ISABEL, 40 years old, a bookkeeper.

FRENCH, Miss ALICE, 41 years old, a bookkeeper.

SPARKS, Miss MARY, 26 years old, a school-teacher.

VENTRES, EDWARD S., 41 years old, an electrician; his wife, 35 years old, and their daughter, Leslie, 12 years old.

Mrs. Catherine Root and her sons, George and Arthur, were badly burned in escaping from the building.

Explosion Causes the Fatalities.

The fire is supposed to have started from spontaneous combustion in the stock of James Clifford & Sons Company, hardware dealers. They had turpentine, paints, oils, and dynamite stored in the basement.

George Root, who lived in the upper story of the Clifford Block, was awakened shortly after 1 o’clock this morning by smoke that rolled into his room from a partly covered chimney hole. He called his brother and mother, and they ran down the front stairs in their night clothes, shouting to the other occupants of the upper floors as they went. They found the front door in flames, but the men wrenched it open and they dashed through.

The Roots had barely crossed the street before there was a traffic explosion in the building behind them, and in an instant the Clifford block was all aflame. This explosion was heard for a distance of six miles, shattered windows within a wide radius and caused the fire alarm to ring.

Horace Perrill and his wife, other occupants of the top floor, aroused by the shouts of the Roots, had got half way down the front stairs when they saw the flames leaping up to bar their exit. Three women were below them, trying to get out through the front door, but Perrill saw that the attempt was useless. He rushed his wife through a long corridor to the back stairs, and got out in safety.

All the other occupants of the Clifford Block lost their lives. While the fire was at its height a woman was seen to climb out of a flame filled room to a veranda on the second story with her night clothing and hair ablaze. Staggering to the railing, she leaped to the sidewalk, landing in a heap within a few feet of the blazing walls. Some of the onlookers tried to rush in to drag her out, but the intense heat drove them back, and it was hours later before the body, that of Miss Alice French, was recovered. The bodies of the other victims are probably in the cellar of the block, but they cannot be reached until some time to-morrow.

Within ten minutes of the explosion the flames were licking up the Eddy Building on the south. In this block the people had been almost hurled out of their beds by the explosion, and they lost no time in making their way to the street in their night clothes. The night air was cold, the temperature being about 20 above zero.

Lenox has only a small volunteer Fire Department, and until aid came from Pittsfield, Richmond, and Lee the flames spread rapidly. The Clifford, Eddy, Mahanna, and Bull buildings, the residences of Joseph Gilbert and Mrs. Rose Colbert, and some smaller structures were destroyed. Only a shift of the wind from northwest to southwest saved the Public Library and the Curtis Hotel. Seven of the large elm trees, which are the pride of the Lenox Main Street, were so badly damaged that they will have to be cut down.

New Yorkers Aid Victims.

Many prominent New York and Boston society people were at the Curtis Hotel over Easter. When the explosion was heard many of the hotel party thought that burglars were at work in the Lenox National Bank, across the street. The sudden glare and crackle of the flames, however, aroused them speedily and they hurried to the scene, where they at once took in charge the shivering people 20 degrees above zero, were watching the destruction of their property. The sufferers were taken to the hotel, where warm clothes and every care were given to them.

Among those who assisted in this work were Mrs. Frank K. Sturgis, Mrs. John E. Alexandre, Miss Helen Alexandre, Mrs. Lindsay Fairfax, and Mrs. William H. Bradford. At the Curtis Hotel to-night Mrs. Lindsay Fairfax headed a subscription paper to aid the sufferers and $2,600 was raised.

A proposition was made to-night to raise a fund of $10,000 among the New York Summer residents of Lenox for the fire sufferers. All the villa owners will be asked to subscribe to the fund. A committee will meet in New York to-morrow morning to take up the matter. Easter guests at Curtis Hotel may further assist by a benefit entertainment.

Valuable plans for work on the Robert W. Paterson place, the new Lenox High School, and other villas which the Cliffords had under way were burned, and nothing can be done until new plans have been prepared, and many men will be thrown out of work. It is expected that temporary buildings will be put up by storekeepers. Without these shops villa owners would be compelled to purchase in Pittsfield, Lee, and other towns.

Horses Saved

The South Side of Franklin Street was the Tillotson Livery Complex

At the time, most of Franklin Street was taken up by the Tillotson livery complex. The horses were released and ran for miles. It took days to recapture them all.

Fire Department Better Late than Never

There had been discussion of a Lenox Fire Department but nothing had been done. After the fire a department was quickly formed and a Fire Truck purchased.