HOUSATONIC TOWNSHIPS.

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the two townships, giving preference to such of the petitioners as they judge most likely to bring forward a settlement, allowing none of the settlers more than three years, from the time of the allotment of their lands, in which to bring forward a settlement, by building a suitable house and dwelling therein by themselves or a tenant to the committees acceptance-and tilling such quantity of land as the committee might direct, in in order to be entitled to their grants. The committee were also directed to reserve a sufficient quantity of land for the first settled minister, Ministry, and School, and to demand and receive from each grantee the sum of thirty shillings for each one hundred acres granted; the money so received to be expended in paying the Indians a reasonable sum for their rights to the lands, paying the expenses of the settling committee and of laying out the lands, and the residue, in building meeting-houses in the townships.

At Westfield on the 25th April, 1724, Konkapot and twenty other Indians-"all of Housatonack allias Westonook"-in consideration of the payment secured to them of "Four Hundred and Sixty Pounds, Three Barrels of Sider and thirty quarts of Rum," executed a deed conveying to the committee-Col. John Stoddard, Capt. John Ashley, Capt. Henry Dwight and Capt. Luke Hitchcock- "A certain tract of land lying upon Housatonack river alias Westonook," bounding Southardly upon ye divisional line between the Province of Massachusetts Bay and the Colony of Connecticut in New England, westwardly on ye patten or colony of New York, northwardly upon ye Great Mountain known by ye name of Mau-ska-fee-haunk, and eastardly to run four miles from ye aforesaid River, and in a general way so to extend."

The Indians reserved within this tract all the land, on the west side of the river, lying between the mouth of a brook called "Mau-nau-pen-fe-con" and of a small brook lying between the aforesaid brook and the river called "Waumpa-nick-se-poot" or "White River"—now the Green River-extending due west from the mouths of said brooks to the Colony of New York, and also a "Clear Meadow" lying between the before-mentioned

small brooks and White River. The tract conveyed by this deed included the whole of the towns of Sheffield, Great Barrington, Mount Washington, and Egremont, the greater part of Alford, and large portions of West Stockbridge, Stockbridge, and Lee; a much larger territory than was comprehended in the legislative grant.

As the boundary line between New York and Massachusetts had not then been established, the western limit of this tract was indefinite. The Great Mountain "Mau-ska-fee-haunk”—the northern boundary in this conveyance, is believed to be the Rattlesnake Mountain in Stockbridge near the southern slope of which the north line of the upper township ran as afterwards surveyed. (1) The grant of the two townships, as they were finally surveyed, included the present towns of Sheffield and Great Barrington, a large part of West Stockbridge, Stockbridge, and Lee, and a small part of Alford. The tract reserved by the Indians, with the exception of the clear meadow, lies immediately south. of the south line of Great Barrington and extends from the Housatonic River westerly to the line of New York ; the clear meadow is included within the recognized limits of Great Barrington. This reservation will be more particularly noticed hereafter.

Proceedings of the Settling Committee Relative to the Lower Township.

As an initiatory step toward the settlement of the Lower Township, the committee called a meeting of the petitioners or proposed settlers, to be held at the house of John Day, in Springfield, on the 13th of March, 1723, but, as a public fast had been appointed. to be observed on that day, the time of the meeting

(1) Some have supposed the Great Mountain here referred to, to be the Monument Mountain, and it is so stated in a copy of the Indian deed" printed in Vol. 8 of the New England Historical and Geneological Register, in 1854, but such supposition is evidently erroneous, as the north line of this tract as subsequently surveyed-and accepted by the Indians-ran more than two miles north of Monument Mountain, and the Indian name of the latter was Mas-wa-se-hi. We have followed the orthography of the Rev. James Bradford, in the Indian names in the deed, though they are printed differently in the copy above mentioned..

TOWN BOUNDS ESTABLISHED.

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was postponed to the 19th. At this meeting fifty-five persons, each having paid the sum of thirty shillings to the committee, were accepted by them and were to have lands granted to them, on condition that each should build a suitable house and till twelve acres of land within three years' time. At a little later date John Stoddard declined serving on the committee and Samuel Porter died, and Capt. Ebenezer Pomroy was added to the the committee by a vote of the General Court, on the 14th of November, 1724. The records of the committee do not show what, if any, progress was made in the settlement of the township in the three years which had elapsed from March 1723 to March 1726, nor do they furnish any means of accounting for the apparent delay.

On the 9th of March, 1726, at a meeting of the committee, it was determined "that two of the committee, at least, should go to Housatonic to make something of a survey of the same, in order to a division of the two towns and some projection, if they could, in order to ye laying out of ye lots in ye Lower Township at least; and Capt. Ashley and Capt. Pomroy went to Housatonic on the aforesaid message.' Messrs. Ashley and Pomroy evidently visited Housatonic in March, and on the 8th of April the committee again assembled at Springfield, and determined "that ye Lower Township shall extend up the Main River from ye Path yt goeth over ye River by ye Great Wigwam, something above ye middle falls, which is something above half a mile from said path; and if there shall be a mill or mills sett up there in ye Great River, that each town shall have ye privilege of ye stream for yt purpose." This decree located the divisional line, between the two townships, at the north side of the present Iron Bridge -the Great Bridge-where it was afterwards surveyed by Timothy Dwight in 1736. The "Great Wigwam," or rather the locality known by that name, was near the site of the present Congregational Church in the village of Great Barrington, probably a little to the south and east of that building; the "Path" crossed the river at a fordway directly east of the foot of Church street. The "Middle Falls" are the same now occupied by the

Berkshire Woolen Company. The committee at this meeting-April 8th, 1726,-proceeded to divide the Lower Township into five divisions, along the river, following the course of the stream from the Connecticut line, northerly, to the present Iron Bridge. These divisions were roughly made, and included the meadow land and the upland immediately adjoining; to each division a specified number of proprietors was allotted.

The first division extended up the river, from the Connecticut line, four hundred rods; in this division were nine proprietors. The second division extended up the river "about two miles" to a certain large brook; (1) in this division were nine proprietors. The third division extended up to the "Indian Land,” (2) "being most two miles;" to this division twenty-one proprietors were assigned, including the Minister's right and the School land. The fourth division began at the north side of the Indian Land, "near the mouth of Green River," and extended "about a mile" to a little cove (3) which emptied into the river at the lower end of a meadow which "Joshua White improves ;" in this division were fourteen proprietors. The fifth division extended from the mouth of the cove mentioned, up the river "to the end of the town bounds;" to this division eight proprietors were allotted; but it was provided by the committee that the proprietors should not lay out the land above the path which crossed the river at the Great Wigwam. This provision was intended as a protection to, or reservation of the water power which fell within the limits of the fifth division, and which the committee had decreed should be kept for the use of both townships.

Having made the foregoing divisions, the com

(1) Probably the stream which crosses the highway a little below Sheffield Plain.

(2) The Indian Land'-the Indian Reservation, or land reserved by the Indians in their deed of 1724.

(3) This cove is now a low piece of ground-near the highway-in the meadow next south of the Agricultural Ground. The point where it emptied into the river is a little north of Merrit I. Wheeler's residence. The Green river then emptied into the Housatonic near the present north line of Sheffield.

SETTLERS MOLESTED BY THE DUTCH.

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mittee, at the same meeting-April 8th, 1726-reported their proceedings, reading them over several times to the proprietors, which were "well accepted by them," and the proprietors, fifty-nine in number, drew lots to determine in which divisions the lands to be laid out to each should be located, with the exception of a few, whose locations were determined by the committee. The few whose locations were fixed by the committee -aside from the Minister's Right, the right sequestered to the Ministry, and the School Right-may have been absent from the meeting, or, as appears more probable, were those who had already commenced improvements in the Lower Township, as Matthew Noble and perhaps some others, had done. The breadths of the several divisions along the river, north and south, were estimated rather than accurately measured; that these estimates were made with extreme liberality is apparent to the casual observer of the present day; their extent, east and west of the river, is indefinite, but was such as to accommodate each proprietor with a suitable quantity of both meadow and upland.

It is to be presumed that the committee proceeded immediately, after making these divisions, in April 1726, to lay out home lots and other lands to the proprietors in the respective divisions to which they had been by lot assigned, and that some of the proprietors entered upon and occupied their lands in the spring of that year; but the records of the committee furnish little light on this point, although they do inform us that "many people were upon the land" previous to May 1727. Soon after the commencement of settlements, difficulties arose between the settlers and certain Dutchmen from the Province of New York, who claimed the lands as within the limits and jurisdiction of that Province. Of how serious a nature these troubles were does not distinctly appear, but they were of such moment as to become the subject of correspondence between the governments of the two provinces as early as the spring of 1727.

The records of the committee sum up the matter very briefly, as follows:- "After ye lot was drawn, or after many people was upon the land at Housatunnuck,