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the water privilege and premises taken from Ingersoll on this execution, and was holding them in 1761. It was for the purpose of ejecting Mr. Williams and regaining possession of the water power that agents were appointed by the town as above narrated.

Sheffield joined with this town in the affair and appointed Nathaniel Austin its agent to co-operate with the agents of Great Barrington. A suit was brought against Williams, to be tried before the Justices of the Superior Court of Common Pleas, to be held at Great Barrington on the first Tuesday of September, 1762. In the writ, which bears date August 24th, 1762, the plaintiffs "demand against the said John, as ye joint right and inheritance of the said towns of Sheffield and Great Barrington, that part of Housatonnock River (so called) called the falls of the Great River being in said Great Barrington, near the meeting-house in ye last mentioned town, which falls are one hundred and fifty rods in length and the breadth of said river," reciting the fact that the falls were sequestered and set apart by the settling committee for the common use and benefit of both towns, "and into which ye said John hath no entry but after the disseizen which David Ingersoll unjustly and without judgment committed against the said towns." The case was entered in court at the September term, 1762. Mark Hopkins appeared as the attorney for the plaintiffs, and the defendant appeared by Daniel Jones his attorney, who plead his plea, to which the plaintiffs demurred. Judgment was rendered for the plaintiffs on the demurrer, and the defendant appealed to the Superior Court of Judicature to be held at Springfield on the last Tuesday of the same month. A careful search of the records of the Superior Court, furnishes no further trace of this suit; it is therefore to be presumed that Williams abandoned his case, and his claim to the disputed premises. The town had virtually taken possession of the stream about six months previous, and it is probable that the dam and mills erected by Ingersoll were then in a dilapidated condition and that the forge had disappeared. After the appointment of agents in this matter, and before the commencement of the suit against

GRANT TO ISRAEL DEWEY.

181

Williams, the town, acting upon the petition of Israel Dewey, made to him a conditional grant of the water power, as by the following vote passed March 10th, 1762. Voted, "that Israel Dewey have leave to build a saw-mill and grist-mill upon Housatonnock River, within any part of the same between the present Great Bridge on the County road and the north part of Ensign Aaron Sheldon's land, viz: his present homestead, and to use and improve the same for sawing and grinding at the usual rates at which the same is done in this province; and that he have leave to keep up and maintain the same so long as he shall keep them in good repair and afford suitable attendance at them for the common use and benefit of the town; always provided that the said Israel build said mills within twelve months from this time." Mr. Dewey complied with the conditions of the grant, and immediately proceeded to erect a saw-mill and grist-mill, which he did upon his own land. Mr Dewey at that time owned and dwelt upon, the premises known as the Rosseter-now Henry Dresser's-place, and his mills were built nearly in rear of his dwelling, on the west side of the stream, the approach to them being by a lane where Dresser street now is. His dam was upon the site of the present Rubber Works dam, a little below which some of its timbers are still visible. "The north part of Ensign Aaron Sheldon's land" in the vote last quoted, was near the present north line of Robert Girling's premises.

This vote gave Mr. Dewey control of all the water power from the Great Bridge, southerly, to the point where he erected his works; and if the evidence of aged and reputable witnesses, taken in the trial of the noted water suit between the Berkshire Woolen Company and Horace H. Day, in 1849, is entitled to credit, Dewey's dam must have rendered the works above it useless, for, as was then testified, this dam was about six feet high, set the water back above the bend of the river, north of the bridge, and raised the water two or three feet at the bridge.

Dewey's mills, a grist-mill and saw-mill, both probably under one roof-as was not an unusual custom in building at that time-constituted, for thirty years, all

the improvements, in use, of the water power of the Housatonic River in this town. These mills, though somewhat inconveniently located on the steep bank of the river, were important works; for, though saw-mills were sufficently numerous, with the exception of the Williams grist-mill at Van Deusenville, there appears to have been no other place in town at which the inhabitants could have their grain converted into flour or meal.

It is commonly difficult to arrive at the precise time of the erection of old buildings or of the making of improvements, but in the case of Israel Dewey's mills this difficulty is obviated by the preservation of his account book in which is recorded:

66

Oct. 14th, 1762, Wheeler Finished the mill and went off all but Bill. Bill Lain worked five days after Wheeler went."

We also gather from the same book the names and time of the workmen upon the mill as follows:

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and the "Price of the Bolting cloath £1. 17s. 3d."

106, 86,"

Mr. Dewey operated these mills to the time of his decease-1773-—and they were afterwards in the occupancy of his sons, Justin and Hugo, until 1791, who then conveyed the premises to Major Thomas Ingersoll and Moses Hopkins, Esq., "with all the privileges of the stream which were granted to our father Israel Dewey deceased, by the proprietors of Housatunauk River in Great Barrington." This conveyance gave to Messrs. Ingersoll & Hopkins all the water power of the stream from the bridge southward, which had been originally granted by the town to Israel Dewey. During the thirty years in which the Dewey mills were maintained, no works were erected between them and the bridge.

In 1792, Ingersoll and Hopkins abandoned the Dewey mills, and built a new dam on the site of the old one of David Ingersoll-the same now occupied by the Berkshire Woolen Company-removing at the

INGERSOLL AND HOPKINS' MILLS.

183

same time a portion of the Dewey dam in order that their work might not be impeded by the setting back of water. In prosecuting this work they found remains of the dam built by David Ingersoll more than fifty years before. These gentlemen erected there a grist-mill on the west side of the stream-the old red mill, taken down in 1852—and also a saw-mill on the east side. These works with other improvements in that vicinity will be hereafter more particutarly mentioned. The Dewey mill is said to have been removed to another locality and converted into a distillery; but we are uncertain as to its new location and use; though it may be surmised that it was removed to the Robbins grove on Castle street hill, where Doctor David Leavenworth-several years later-had a distillery for the manufacture of cider brandy.

RELIGIOUS

CHAPTER XV.

DISSENSIONS-QUARRELS

MINISTER'S SALARY.

1757-1769.

OVER THE

We have alluded to the disagreements relative to the raising of money for the salary of the minister, which was a subject of dispute in the town meetings from 1761 to 1769; but the causes of variance had their origin in circumstances of an earlier date. Of the first

settlers, the Dutch-as their traditions assert—were attached to the Lutheran church, in which they had been reared in the state of New York, whilst the English who had been brought up in the Orthodox faith of New England were Congregationalists. But if the early impressions made upon the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, in his intercourse with these settlers, are to be relied upon, there was a deplorable want of religious sentiment amongst them, and but few of the whole number were truly religious. The meeting-house had been built by a tax equitably assessed upon the proprietary rights to the land, and each proprietor, resident or non-resident, or of whatever religious persua sion, contributed his just proportion, according to the number of rights which he owned.

In the charter of the parish, as was the custom of the time, provision was made for the "support of an able, learned, and Orthodox minister;" for the laws of the province required that the inhabitants of towns and parishes "should take due care from time to time to be constantly provided of a Learned, Able and Orthodox minister," and further "that he should be suitably maintained by the inhabitants of the town." The salary of the minister, under the law, was raised by a tax upon the polls and estates of the inhabitants. Towards the building of the meeting-house, the Dutch proprie

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