upon

ing the Revolution, to the courts set up by the legislature, and to the policy prevalent at the east, had not left a prejudice against her the minds of the public men of that section, of which it would have been easy for shrewd managers in the lobby or on the floor to have taken advantage; but the same could hardly be said of Great Barrington, which, in 1778, had been the only town in the county to vote, as it did almost unanimously, in favor of admitting the civil administration of the State. Lenox, although as perversely against the legislative policy as her neighbors, was less conspicuous. But Stockbridge was rather conservative in politics, was the residence of many eminent and influential men, and was already a lovely village, whose praise was in the mouths. of people of culture and intelligence in the great centres of opinion.

It is observable, that when the movement for the change in the courts was begun, for the two years 1782 and 1783, Pittsfield was unrepresented in the General Court, and in the former year was fined £36. 6s. 3d. for neglecting to send a representative. In 1784 Dr. Timothy Childs, and in 1785 Capt. Charles Goodrich, were chosen, and probably commanded as much influence at Boston as any who could have been selected. In the same years, there were in the legislature, from Berkshire, such men as Theodore Sedgwick, Jahleel Woodbridge, and John Bacon, of Stockbridge; Elijah Dwight of Great Barrington; William Walker of Lenox; and Jonathan Smith of Lanesborough: and all doubtless exhibited the regard for their respective places of residence which is natural and creditable; and it would be pardonable if their judgments were warped by local predilections.

Geographically, as between the north and south, the centre of the county is nearly on the south line of Pittsfield, about equidistant from the Pittsfield Park and the Lenox Court-house; but, in 1785, the centre of wealth and population was considerably to the south of the latter point, probably in the neighborhood of "Old Stockbridge on the plain." If the courts were all to be held at one point, the selection of Lenox, therefore, favored the north rather than the south.

Even if the General Sessions manifested any great alacrity, which is not apparent, in complying with the act of the legislature in establishing the shire-town, the state of the county precluded an immediate provision to carry it out. The year 1786, it will be

remembered, was that of the Shays Rebellion, and was certainly an unhappy one for raising taxes in Berkshire for any purpose, and most of all for the erection of court-houses and jails.

The court of General Sessions held at Pittsfield in May, 1786, nevertheless directed Eli Root, John C. Williams, and Simon Larned, all of that town, to prepare a plan for the public buildings to be built at Lenox, and report what materials would be required. Eli Root was also appointed to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Theodore Sedgwick on a commission previously named to select a proper site.

The succeeding terms of the court being obstructed by the Shays men, the committees had no opportunity to report until May, 1787, even if they desired to do so. But, early in that year, to have the Berkshire courts settled, the legislature, rendered impatient by the exciting events which had just transpired in the county, made a peremptory order that the Court of Common Pleas should be held at Lenox in the ensuing February, and the Supreme Court in May. The first term of the Common Pleas recorded to have been held there opened Sept. 11, 1787.

In the mean time, the Court of General Sessions, at the May term held at Great Barrington, selected Theodore Sedgwick and John Bacon of Stockbridge, and Major Azariah Eggleston of Lenox, to determine upon a site and contract for the erection of the buildings, which David Rossiter, Nathaniel Bishop of Richmond, and Benjamin Pierce were directed to superintend, and have finished as soon soon as possible. The county buildings were actually commenced in the spring of 1788. The jail was finished, and the prisoners were removed to it from Great Barrington, in the latter part of 1790; the court-house was completed in 1791 or 1792: the cost of the two buildings being £3,441. 5s., 3d., towards which, according to Dr. Field, " individuals in Lenox advanced, in building materials, £800." The court-house, a wooden building, now the Lenox town-hall, stood a few rods south of that now about to be abandoned by the courts, which was erected in 1815, and has been several times remodelled. The first jail was built upon a hill about half a mile south of the village, on the old Stockbridge Road.

28

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE MEETING-HOUSE OF 1790.

[1789-1793.]

Accommodations for Religious Worship in 1790.- Plans for a New Meeting-House. -Items from the Assessment of 1791. Sale of Continental Money. - Materials for the New Meeting-House.Location of the House Salvation of the Elm, and Creation of the Park. - Building of the House. - Disputes about Pews. The First Bell. Destruction of the Old Meeting-House. - BallPlaying forbidden on the Common. - Town House and Academy erected. Protection for the Burial-Ground. — John Chandler Williams. Madam Williams.

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ESSRS. Oliver Partridge and Moses Graves, in 1762, expressed to the General Court their opinion, that the little meeting-house then building, with perplexed and prolonged effort, by the poor proprietors of settling-lots at Poontoosuck, would be insufficient to contain the inhabitants when sixty families should be in town.

It was, however, made to answer, with no loud complaints of inconvenience, until, after thirty troubled years, Pittsfield, in 1790, had attained a population of two thousand, of which about two hundred were Baptists, Episcopalians, and Shakers.

The Baptists had a meeting-house, unfinished, in the West Part; the Shakers, another in the south-west; and the Episcopalians held divine service, with lay reading, oftenest in the spacious parlors of the Van Schanck mansion. But the attendance upon all these places of worship could not have sensibly diminished the congregation at the old meeting-house where Mr. Allen ministered to the "standing order."

Irreligious habits, contracted in years of war or popular tumult, contributed more sadly to lessen the number of constant worshippers; and the unattractive edifice drew within its narrow walls

few whom the spirit of devotion, habit, or public opinion, did not compel thither.

But it appears from one of the resolutions quoted in the last chapter, that the growing necessity for a larger building was admitted, and that its location was one of the points in dispute among the people. Perhaps the existing dissensions had hindered the earlier undertaking of the work. Certainly the erection of a commodious and creditable house of worship was a task of no small magnitude as the town was then situated, and one for whose successful accomplishment united and amicable effort was so essential that it furnished a powerful inducement to that spirit of mutual forbearance which prevailed in the June meeting of 1788.

The first town action toward a new meeting-house was on the 13th of April, 1789, when the following committee was appointed to report a plan, with the estimated cost: Woodbridge Little, Daniel IIubbard, Timothy Childs, Joel Stevens, Simon Larned, Ebenezer White, Oswald Williams, David Bush, and John Chandler Williams.

On the 23d of November, the committee reported, that, in their opinion, it was necessary to build a meeting-house seventy feet long, exclusive of porch and balcony, and fifty-one feet wide; that it was expedient to raise and cover the frame, paint, and glaze, in one year, of which the cost would be £701. 7s. 2d.; and that this would be about two-thirds of the entire expense. The question of finishing the interior they left to future consideration, with the design of postponing as long as possible the differences of opinion which were sure to arise regarding the mode of "seating the house."

The report was accepted, and the following committee was appointed to collect material: David Bush, Joel Stevens, John Chandler Williams, Simon Larned, John Partridge, Oliver Root, Josiah Moseley, Dan Cadwell, and Joel Dickinson.

This committee were instructed to give every person, as far as convenient, a chance to pay his proportion of the cost in material and labor, and to contract with the town debtors for payment in the same manner as far as they thought advantageous. The "Book of Credits" does not distinguish between the receipts on

1 There were at this time two citizens of the name of David Bush in active life, father and son; and the records rarely distinguish which is intended.

account of taxes and those in payment of debt; but otherwise they are very minute, and show from whose contribution almost every constituent of the building came, from Dr. Timothy Child's eighty-feet stick of timber to the laborer's day's work or few bushels of lime. Thus, Stephen Fowler, who lies buried in the Pilgrim's Rest at the new cemetery, brought the ridgepole; Capt. Charles Goodrich, two sills; William Partridge, Josiah and Isaac Ward, a large stick; Col. Oliver Root, fifty feet of oak posts and forty-six feet of oak plates; Mrs. Stoddard and Mrs. Dickinson, widows of old friends, but leaders in opposing parties during the Revolution, united in contributing a pillar twenty feet long and a pine beam seventy feet; Zebulon Stiles, one of the earliest settlers, and now a slumberer in the Pilgrim's Rest, brought a sill fifty feet long; and Capt. Jared Ingersoll contributed, from his timber-land in Lenox, one of the pillars of the belfry: and thus through all the townsmen, or at least the Congregational portion of them.1

There is no intimation of any voluntary contributions, and there probably were none, as Joshua Danforth was in 1793 directed by a vote of the town to purchase a pulpit-cushion, the article most likely to have been a gift. The only subscription-paper extant, connected with the building, is one to be paid in grain; and it expressly provides that the amounts contributed were to be deducted from the giver's next tax. A small portion of the taxes were paid in coin; and some who did not find it convenient to make payment either in this way or in the supply of material tendered neat cattle or grain, a species of property which long afterwards continued, as it had been long before, the most convenient circulating medium within ordinary reach.

Some items of interest may be gathered from the assessor's books; and we take at random that of 1791, when £700 were assessed for "finishing the meeting-house."

"2

The polls that year numbered 411; the real and personal estate and "faculty were valued at £3,626. 4s. 6d. The sum assessed for ordinary town charges was £297,- a little more than one-third of the expense of finishing the meeting-house. The poll-tax for town purposes was four shillings, two pence, the amount assessed

1 It should be understood that the articles specified were only a portion of the contributions of most of the persons named.

2 The faculty to obtain an income from skill in the learned professions, the arts, in mercantile business, or the like.