History of North Adams, Mass.


Organizing your family History search




Guide to the History of Massachusetts




Hidden New England

History of North Adams.



found and carried to Williams College, by Captain Harrison’s permission. The stone is shaped like a letter V with the bottom cut off; it is about two feet nine inches in height, four inches thick, and sloping in width from sixteen inches at the top to six inches at the bottom. It is a common dark stone, and is apparently just as it was found, never having been wrought at all except to cut the letters and figures upon it. Prof. Perry was fortunate in being the means of saving so interesting a relic. Had it remained on the meadow the letters, already dim, would before now have become quite illegible. One such inscription as the following is worth more, as authority, than any amount of tradition:

June 12,
1745,
E. N I M,
At 26y.

This is undoubtedly the Elisha Nims mentioned above as having been wounded June 11, 1745, and his death took place the following day. In the grave beneath this stone the partially decayed skeleton of a man was found, and lodged in one of the joints or, vertebrae of his backbone was the fatal bullet which caused his death. This bone, with t1le bullet in it, may be seen at Williams, College, a sad memento of the, marksmanship of those perilous, days. The thigh bones are very sound and perfect, and of large size, indicating that their owner was over six feet tall. The skull was perfect, and the jaw had every tooth sound, excepting one, gone. Tradition states that this young man was shot outside the fort, while obtaining water from the excellent spring on the north bank. There was a well inside the fort, but the preference for, spring water is not strange in any one, and especially not in those who tolled as the soldiers of that day did. Tradition also states that an Indian was shot on the north bank by a soldier named Howland, with a “long gun,” after he had repeatedly and grossly insulted the men in the fort. Instances occurred in which the enemy were thus killed at the extraordinary distance of sixty rods, and they often fell when they supposed themselves in perfect security. Habituated to sharp-shooting, the garrison signaled out the assailants whenever they exposed themselves, and brought them down at a long shot. The bank west of the Harrison residence, on which this saucy redskin is supposed to have stood when, he received his punishment, is still called the “Indian ledge.”

In the burial ground were four other small headstones, but they bore no inscriptions. The names of the men whose honored dust they marked are unknown. They have faded into obscurity, together with a thousand incidents that would interest and astonish the present generation, accustomed as it is to plenty, security and ease.

Some of the first settlers of the town were soldiers located at Fort Massachusetts. One of them, a John Perry, had settled here, built for himself a home and cleared a small farm at the time the prisoners were taken, August 20, 1746, he being one of them. His house and effects it seems were destroyed, and a short time after his release from captivity he petitioned the General Court for compensation for his losses. This quaint petition, which is given below, was disregarded by the Court. It is dated November 3, 1747, less than three months after his return from captivity:


Whereas, your Honors’ humble Petitioner enlisted in the service of the country, under the command of Captain Ephriam Williams, in tho year 1745, and was posted at Fort Massachusetts, in Hoosuck, and upon ye encouragement we had from ye late Colonel John Stoddard, which was that if we went, with our familles, he did not doubt but that ye court would grant us land to settle on. Whereupon I, your Honors’ humble petitioner, carried up my family, with my household goods and other effects, and continued there till we were taken, when we were obliged to surrender to the French and Indian enemy, August 20, 1746. I would humbly lay before your Honors the losses I sustained then, which are as followeth: A house which I built there for my family, £80; two feather beds with their furniture, £100; two suits of apparel apiece for me and my wife, £150 ; two brass kettles, a pot of pewter, with tramel tonge and fire slice, and knives and forks to ye balance of £20; one crosscut saw, £20; and one new broadax, £6; three new narrow axes, £8; two steele traps, £14; two guns, £32; one pistol, £5; one hundred weight of sugar, £20; total, £457, with a great many other things not named. The losses your humble petitioner hath met with, together with my captivity, hath reduced me to low circumstances, and now humbly prayeth your Honors of your goodness to grant him a grant of land to settle upon near ye forts, where I fenced, which was about a mile west of the fort, or elsewhere, where your Honors pleaseth, and that your Honors may have a full reward hereafter for all your pious and charitable deeds, your Honors’ humble petitioner shall always pray."

              JOHN PERRY.

This date places John Perry as the first settler in the Hoosac Valley, though he never returned here after his captivity. The estimates he made of the property, it must be remembered, were in "lawful money," that is, Colonial bills made legal tender, and these, during that very year, were being redeemed by Massachusetts at the rate of eleven for one silver dollar.





Edited and adapted from the original by Laurel O’Donnell
© Laurel O’Donnell 1999-2006, all rights reserved,
Do not reproduce nor distribute without written permission.