family might be "out of the way of fears from the Indians," moved them to Canaan, where they remained until the last of October. This and other alarms doubtless led to the fortification of several dwelling houses; one of these is reputed to have stood where Edward Manville now resides, in the south part of the village; and tradition locates another on the farm of Nicholas Race in the west part of the town.

As a secure place of refuge in case of an attack, a Block-house-called "the fort"-was built, apparently in the spring of 1755. This stood on the west side of the road leading to Van Deusenville, about fifteen rods north of the residence of Frederick Abbey. Its site is still indicated by a slight depression in the ground, and also by a small old pear tree which grew near the west side of the building. This was a strong, substantial structure, built of square timbers; in size about thirty to thirty-five feet square on the ground, its upper story surmounted by a watch tower. It was loop-holed for musketry, and under it was a cellar; there was also a well near by. This building, afterwards used as a county jail, a small pox hospital in the Revolution, and later as a dwelling house and mechanic shop-was taken down nearly fifty years ago. From among other circumstances recorded by Mr. Hopkins we select the following:

Lord's Day, February 23, 1755. A great number of Connecticut soldiers were at meeting, who are going to Stockbridge and Pontoosuk, to build forts and scout &c."

1755. "July 9. Heard to-day that the Indians have taken a man and woman, and child, about ten miles to the west of us. It was done yesterday, and one Indian was killed by the husband, while he was attempting to carry off his wife a captive. One woman is also wounded. Two or three Indians chased a man about a mile and a half west of my house. Upon this news we think it not prudent to live at my house and have therefore concluded to lodge at Mother Ingersoll's this night."

The house of Mr. Hopkins was where Walter W. Hollenbeck now resides, on Castle street hill, and his mother-in law-Mrs. Ingersoll-then lived on the east side of the street south of Mount Peter. Alarms similar to those narrated, were very frequent, and common throughout the war. The first news which arrived

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here of the battle of Lake George-September 8, 1755, -was adverse to the English, and many men from this region hurried forward to the assistance of their countrymen; but intelligence of the victory was soon after received, and on Sunday the 14th, it was made the theme of the minister's discourse. The great local event of the war was the march of General Amherst and his army through the parish on his way to attack Ticonderoga in 1758. The troops of General Amherst, at that time, encamped east of the Green River bridge, on both sides of the road leading to Egremont; and the late venerable Moses Hopkins, Esq.,-then a lad of seven years-well remembered riding over on horseback with his father, to see the General and his army. Within the knowledge of the writer, musket balls in considerable quantity, supposed to be relics of this encampment, have twice been plowed up on the meadows of J. M. Mackie in that vicinity.

In 1755, December 5th, Mr. Hopkins records "More than twenty soldiers lodged at my house last night, on their return from the camp at Lake George, and a number are here again to-night." And again, "Lord's Day, March 16th, 1756, A great number of soldiers at meeting, both forenoon and afternoon, who are on their march to Crown Point. Two captains and their companies desire prayers in their behalf this afternoon." The small рох, the great scourge of the army, was occasionally brought here by the soldiers, some of whom died here. Tomb stones marking the graves of two of the victims of this disease, are to be seen in the south burial ground. The inscriptions are as follows:

"Lt. Davenport Williams, son of Rev. Stephen Williams of Springfield, who on his return from the army, died at Sheffield Oct. 18th, 1758, in the 28th year of his age.

"Mr. Oliver Chapin, son of Lt. Noah Chapin of Somers, who on his return from the army, died at Sheffield Dec. 7th, 1758, in the 20th year of his age."

Others who died here in that same campaign, are presumed to have been buried in proximity to those named above, though no monumental stones mark their graves. A hospital was established here, in which seventeen soldiers died in less than a year in 1756–57—

(Judd's History of Hadley.) Capt. Stephen Gunn, said to have been a soldier in the French war, and who resided where Ralph Taylor now does, died of the small pox November 11, 1759, and was buried a few rods west of his dwelling house. The exact spot of his interment is unknown, though his tombstone-broken down more than sixty years ago-is still preserved upon the premises. Pest houses, for the reception and care of those taken with the small pox, were established in out of the way places. One of these is reputed to have stood near the old marble quarry, on the farm of J. M. Mackie, three-fourths of a mile north of the bridge over Green River, and some persons are known to have died there and to have been buried near by.

The wars with the French and Indians were the schools in which many of the officers and soldiers afterwards conspicuous in the Revolution, acquired that military experience and training without which the final success of the Americans in the unequal contest with Great Britain, would have been impossible.

We have gathered but little information as to the service performed by the inhabitants of the parish in the French and Indian wars; but from a cursory examination of the rolls of soldiers in these wars, in the office of the Secretary of State at Boston, it appears that Sheffield was well represented in the various expeditions of 1755-8, and that the North Parish in proportion to its population furnished very respectable quotas of men. Thus we find the following names of residents of the North Parish doing service in a Sheffield company in the campaign of 1755: John Pixley, Samuel Younglove, William King, Jr., David Pier, William Brunson, Samuel Dewey, Jr., Moses Olds; in 1756John Shevalee, Samuel Dewey, Samuel Dewey, Jr., Moses Olds, David Pier, Timothy Younglove, William Brunson, William [Bill] Williams, Peter Ingersoll, David Walker, [Walter] Oliver Watson. Amongst the field and staff officers of Col. Joseph Dwight's regiment in the expedition against Crown Point in 1756, we have Doct. Samuel Breck-of the North Parishsurgeon, and Elijah Dwight, afterwards of this town, commissary of the hospital.

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In an account of the men of Capt. Joseph Dwight's company-for he was Capt. of the first company as well as Colonel of the regiment-dated Fort William Henry, October 11, 1756, the following appear from the North Parish: John Pixley, Sergt., "sick at Albany." Oliver Watson, "sick at Albany.' Moses Old, "gone to Albany, wounded; "William King. In two rolls of the company of Capt. Benjamin Day, in the "Regiment for the Reduction of Canada"-William Williams, Col., in service from April to October, 1758, we identify the following from the North Parish: Lieut. George King, David Ingersoll, Titus Younglove, Eli Noble, Oliver Watson "emprest May 2d, joined the army 19th Sept.," Jonathan Pixley, Daniel Morris.

On their return from these expeditions large bodies of soldiery frequently passed through the parish; and in one of the books of French war rolls-No. 96, page 360-appears the billeting bill of Aaron Sheldon, (who kept a tavern where the Berkshire House stands); for 1126 meals at 6d each furnished the passing soldiers on their return home in 1758, and for nursing several sick soldiers, one of whom died in his care.

CHAPTER XII.

GREAT BARRINGTON AS THE NORTH PARISH OF SHEFFIELD.

1743-1761.

The country, into which the pioneers of 1726 entered with their families and such scanty household goods as they were able to transport through the woods, was an unbroken wilderness. The mountains and up-lands were covered with a heavy growth of timber, and the lowlands, bordering upon the streams were for the most part swamps and morasses. The rivers in many places obstructed with drift-wood and fallen trees,. spread their waters over a wide area. The mountains: were the homes of wild beasts; bears, wolves and deer were common, and the smaller animals abounded.

Save the intricate bridle path which formed the means of communication between the Connecticut River Valley and the settlements on the New York border, no roads crossed this wide expanse; and for many years› after the commencement of settlements there were no› towns nearer than Claverack and Kinderhook on the→ west, or Westfield on the east. And so late as 1735,. when the first road from Westfield to Sheffield was cut, through the forest, there was but one house on the route, and that in Blandford fifteen miles this side of Westfield. (1) Few of the early settlers possessed an

(1) The route from Hartford and Springfield towards Albany was then as it very long had been, through Westfield, Blandford, Otis, Monterey, Great Barrington, and Egremont to Kinderhook. The road of 1735, following somewhat nearly this route, became a County road in 1754, and was called "the Great Road from Boston to Albany." In the Spring of 1737 ten inhabitants of Sheffield and Stockbridge (six of them of the North Parish) petitioned the Legislature, stating that they, in the preceding winter, had "at their own expense made a sleigh road from Sheffield to New Glascow" (Blandford) over which "more than twenty well loaded sleighs passed and repassed to and from Westfield," and asked for remuneration.