Tag Archives: Lenox History

Lenox Village – Background for Walking Tours

September 14, 2014 lenoxhistory Leave a comment

Lenox Village

When Lenox was founded in 1767 most residents would have been farmers – even if lawyering, tavern owning, shoemaking, etc. formed part of the support for themselves and their families. So initially, most lots in the village would have been large enough to accommodate a garden, a pig, chickens, and perhaps a cow plus, in many cases, land elsewhere in town for corn or wheat.

From the end of the Revolutionary War into the early 19th century, transportation improved and allowed for more specialization and trade. Village residents still probably would have had enough land for a garden and an animal or two but perhaps smaller lots. This drawing is of Lenox Village in 1839.

By the 1840’s when new territories, immigrants, and railroads had entered the picture, village residents still would probably have wanted to have a small garden plot, a chicken coop and certainly an outhouse. However, they would increasingly be craftsmen, professionals (perhaps working in the county court which was in Lenox until 1868), retail merchants, laborers in Lenoxdale, teamsters, stable keepers, or servants in the larger homes. More and more residents would have been working to earn money to buy food rather than surviving through local exchange of goods and services.

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People

Serge Koussevitzky

September 14, 2014 lenoxhistory 1 Comment

Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky was born July 26, 1874 to a poor Jewish family in what is now Tver Oblast Russia – about 155 miles northwest of Moscow. His parents were professional musicians who taught him violin, cello and piano. He was baptized at the age of 14 since Jews were not allowed to live in Moscow, and he had been awarded a scholarship to the Musico-Dramatic Institute of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. He became a successful bassist and married dancer Nadezhda Galat in 1902.

In 1909 he became a music publisher and gathered works of the greats of his time including: Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Rachmaninoff. He continued to conduct and perform as well.

In 1920 he left the then Soviet Union for posts in Paris and Berlin and in 1924 he left for the United States replacing Pierre Monteux as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was renowned for his recordings and concerts. He was a champion of new music and promising young musicians. Leonard Bernstein was a protégé.

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People

Leonard Constance Peters

September 14, 2014 lenoxhistory 3 Comments

An excellent example of the immigrants who came to work on the estates – and whose descendants populate modern Lenox.

L.C. Peters, one of 10 children, left Kent, England in 1870, when he was 20, to look for work in the United States. His first stop was Troy, NY where he had family and became part of the work crew that came to Lenox to build Ethelwynd. A skilled carpenter, he saved, and had, after four years, enough to bring over his fiancée, Martha Barnes and they raised three children to adulthood in Lenox.

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People

Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton

September 14, 2014 lenoxhistory 4 Comments

Born in 1850, Edward R. (Teddy ) Wharton was destined to live the stereotypical version of the Gilded Age life so elegantly portrayed by his wife Edith Jones Wharton.

Son of Nancy Spring Wharton and William Craig Wharton, Teddy grew up in a beautiful Brookline home and graduated from Harvard. Upon graduating and coming into his trust fund, Teddy successfully pursued the life of a rich 19^th century American – travelling, being a good sportsman and being all round charming.

He was a friend of Edith’s older brothers, Frederic and Henry Jones. In 1883 he met Edith in Bar Harbor, Maine, and they were married in New York in 1885. Shortly after their marriage they moved across the street from the Wharton family summer estate in Newport. In 1893 Edith purchased her own Newport estate called Land’s End. She eventually tired of Newport and purchased 113 acres in Lenox, which would become, in 1901, The Mount, which you can still visit today.

The marriage had been strained for a long time and Teddy stole from Edith to maintain a mistress in Boston. Edith moved to France in 1911 and divorced Teddy in 1913. (Edith died in 1937 in France and is buried in the American Cemetery at Versailles, France.)

Mental illness ran in Teddy’s family and it is speculated he was manic-depressive. After leaving The Mount, Teddy spent much of the remainder of his life at his mother’s summer house (still standing today) at 81 Walker St. in Lenox.

People

Annie Kneeland Haggerty Shaw

September 13, 2014 lenoxhistory Leave a comment

Born to a wealthy New York family in 1835, Annie Haggerty Shaw represents both the Berkshire Civil War widows and the “first generation” of Lenox summer homeowners.

Her parents, Elizabeth Kneeland Haggerty and Ogden Haggerty (also buried at Church on the Hill) summered at Vent Fort. Pictured here, the building, no longer standing, was moved and replaced by the far grander Ventfort Hall built by Sarah Morgan in 1893 and still standing today.

This transformation was illustrative of the 19^th century evolution of Lenox from a charming, intellectual watering hole for the Sedgewicks, Melvilles and Hawthornes to the “can you top this,” opulence of the Gilded Age.

In 1861 she met Robert Gould Shaw, the son of a wealthy Boston family active in the Abolitionist movement. The Shaw family used their influence to get Robert appointed as leader of the Union’s first all Black regiment, the Massachusetts 54^th.

Annie and Robert married in 1863 and honeymooned briefly at Vent Fort before Shaw shipped out at the head of his regiment. As portrayed in the movie, “Glory,” Robert Gould Shaw and many of his troops were mowed down in the assault on Fort Wagner.

Annie Haggerty Shaw never re-married and died in Boston in 1907.

People

Anson Jones

September 13, 2014 lenoxhistory Leave a comment

Although born in Great Barrington in 1798 (not Lenox), Anson Jones is a colorful example of the many Lenox residents who moved on in the early 19^th century to New York, Ohio, – or in his case Texas – in search of land, opportunity or a clean slate.

Jones was licensed as a doctor in Oneida, NY in 1826 and opened a practice but was not successful. After being pursued by creditors, including a side trip to Venezuela, Dr. Jones was arrested in Philadelphia. After failing in business in New Orleans, he moved to Texas in 1833 and finally established a successful medical practice.

He became a supporter of independence for Texas, fought in the revolution against Mexico, and served in various capacities in the new government of the Republic of Texas, until eventually being elected the second and last President of the Republic in 1844. He had married Mary Smith in Houston in 1840. She went on to be the first head of the Daughters of the Republic.

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People

Judge William Walker and Judge William P. Walker

September 13, 2014 lenoxhistory 2 Comments

2014-08-06 08.17.54-1 — Judge William Walker – Photo of Portrait Hanging in Pittsfield Probate Court

William Walker was born in Rehoboth in 1751. This location is not far from one of the early Puritan settlements, and he is undoubtedly one of the many Lenox settlers who was three-four generations removed from the Puritans of the Great Migration of the 1630’s.

William Walker came to Berkshire County at 20 years of age in 1770, Lenox in 1773. He, like Egleston and Paterson, signed the non-importation agreement, was in Boston during the battle at Bunker Hill, the failed invasion of Canada, the crossing of the Delaware, the battle of Princeton and at the battle of Bennington (part of the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga) and marched as captain with a company of Lenox men to Sheffield to put down Shay’s rebellion .

A lawyer by training he attended the Berkshire Convention in Stockbridge in 1774 and was a member of the convention that framed the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780. He was instrumental in important business enterprises including the iron industry in Lenox Dale and land development. He was a stockholder in the Phelps and Gorham purchase in central New York.

As the list of offices he held indicates, William Walker was a true pillar of the community:

President Berkshire Agricultural Society in 1820
President of the Berkshire County Bible Society from 1817-1831
Member of the Congress of Deputies of Berkshire held at Stockbridge July 6, 1774`
Member of the convention which framed the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780
General Court in 1778, 1780, 1784, 1787, 1791, 1794 and 1795
Appointed by Gov. John Hancock February 16, 1781 as Register of Wills for Berkshire County (until 1785)
Selected by the two branches of the General Court on October 16, 1783 as State Senator for the District of Berkshire
Samuel Adams appointed him Judge of Probate for Berkshire County (resigned 1824 when his son succeeded him)
Appointed February 25, 1794 by Gove. Samuel Adams as one of the justics of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Berkshire
James Sullivan appointed him a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Berkshire County in 1807
Associate justice of the Berkshire Court of Sessions in 1809 and from 1811-1814 (commission from Gov. Elbridge Gerry)
Presidential Elector in 1824 for Berkshire.

His most important role was as a judge for Berkshire County with court being administered from 1789 to 1868 in Lenox. He was described as “tall with white locks and of great personal dignity.”

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People

Azirah Egleston

September 13, 2014 lenoxhistory Leave a comment

He was born in Sheffield in 1757, son of Seth Eggleston and Rachel Church Eggleston. Like many of his generation, his father was born in Westfield and emigrated west – as his father may have done before him. Many Revolutionary War veterans were 3^rd or 4^th generation descendants of the Puritans who had landed in Boston in the 1630’s.

About 200 Lenox residents are listed on the Revolutionary War rosters. Not all would have served as long as Major General Paterson or Major Egleston, but it was clearly a town with strong patriot sympathies.

Azirah must have been very committed to the Revolution since he enlisted as a Private in April 1775 at age 18 and participated in many crucial battles and left the service as a Major.

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People

Jonathan Hinsdale – First Settler in Lenox

September 13, 2014 lenoxhistory Leave a comment

Jonathan Hinsdale was the first known European inhabitant of Lenox. He was born March 17, 1724 in Hartford, CT. Many early Berkshire residents came from Connecticut. It may have been easier to move up the Housatonic River Valley then to cross directly from eastern Massachusetts.

As has been discussed elsewhere, the main reason to come to frontier territory (which Lenox would have been at the time) was to get land which was increasingly in short supply to the East and the South.

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Places

80 Cliffwood St., Belvoir Terrace – c. 1888

September 11, 2014 lenoxhistory Leave a comment

A.J. Jessup Mansion built in 1890 is a typical Lenox Gilded Age Mansion

Belvoir Terrace was designed by Rotch & Tilden and built between 1888-1890 for Morris K. Jesup, with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmstead. John Shepherd purchased the estate in the early 1920’s, making many renovations: the addition of two rooms, the enclosure of the porch, and the installation of a slate roof. Like Mr. Jesup, Mr. Shepherd and his family enjoyed summering at Belvoir. As a summer camp, Belvoir Terrace preserves the great lawn, wooded paths, and imported trees, while restoring the mansion and carefully developing new facilities.

In 2001, a study prepared by The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission stated, “Among the great estates, Belvoir Terrace is one of the best examples of an estate that maintains a reasonable balance between active use and preservation. The balance is attributable to the current owners’ singular knowledge of building preservation standards, adherence to a maintenance plan, and to the estate’s successful re-use as a summer arts camp. The estate is itself an important focal point on Cliffwood Street.”

(from the Belvoir Terrace website – 2014)