This town was gradually settled by the English, who bought out the Indian rights one after another before their emigration. Some of the earliest white settlers, next to Mr. Sergeant and Mr. Woodbridge, were Col. Williams, Josiah Jones, Joseph Woodbridge, Samuel Brown, Samuel Brown Jr., Joshua Chamberlain, David Pixley, John Willard, John Taylor, Jacob Cooper, Elisha Parsons, Stephen Nash, James Wilson, Josiah Jones Jun., Thomas Sherman, and Solomon Glezen. Families by the name of Ball, Hamilton, Cadwell, and Lynch were in the west part of the town, of Curtis and Churchill in the north, and of Bradley and Williams in the east, at an early period.

The great body of the people in this town have ever been Congregationalists; though there are some Episcopalians, a few Baptists and Methodists. The principal village, about half a mile in extent, is beautifully situated on the Plain, a tract of level land between "the Hill" and the Housatonic, moderately elevated above the river. It consists of about 40 dwelling-houses, a Congregational church, a bank, and academy. The scenery of the town has been much admired by strangers. It is situated 6 miles S. of Lenox, 44 from Springfield, 59 from Hartford, 32 from Hudson, 34 from Albany, and 130 W. of Boston. Population, 2,036. There are in the town a cotton mill with 3,780 spindles, 2 woollen mills with 8 sets of machinery, and 2 furnaces, one of which is for the manufacture of pig iron, of which in 1837 thirteen hundred and thirty-seven tons were made, valued at $53,480.

[From the Boston Post Boy, Sept. 3, 1739.]

"In a letter from a friend in the country, dated Aug. 21, 1739, we have the following passages. I have lately been to see my friends at Housatonnoc, (now called Stockbridge,) and was well pleased to find the Indians so well improv❜d, particularly in husbandry, having good fields of Indian corn, and beans, and other sorts of grain, as oats, &c. They have good fence about their field, made with their own hands. Some of them live in houses built after the English manner, and Capt. Concopot has built a barn that is well shingled, &c. They have several horses among them, and some cows, hogs, &c. They are many of them grown industrious and diligent in business; I observed several young women sewing cloth, making shirts, &c. But I was in special gratify'd to find them improv'd in learning; several of them have made good proficiency, can read in their Testaments and Bibles, and some of them can write a good hand: the children are in general as mannerly as you find in any country town. There are about 20 families of Indians that live there; and now the great and general court have taken such effectual care, and put them in possession of the land, they have designed for them, (which hitherto they have been hindered from possessing,) I make no doubt but they will greatly increase in number; for several Indians have been with them, and manifested a desire to tarry with them, could they have land to work upon. There is a church gather'd and fourteen Indian communicants; the number of the baptiz'd is near sixty. While I was at Stockbridge, the Rev. Mr. Sergeant (the minister there) was married to Mrs. Abigail Williams, a virtuous and agreeable young gentlewoman, daughter of Ephraim Williams, Esq. There were ninety Indians present at the marriage, who behaved with great gravity while the prayers were made, yea, during the whole solemnity; and seem'd exceedingly well pleased that their minister was married; they show him great respect, &c. And I hope he may prove yet a great blessing among them, and be instrumental of turning many of them from darkness to light.

I am your's, &c."

The following is the inscription on the monument of Mr. Sergeant, in the grave-yard near the Congregational church.

Here lies the body of the Rev. Mr. John Sergeant, who dy'd the 27th day of July, A. D. 1749 in the 46th year of his age.

Where is that pleasing form I ask, thou canst not show,
He's not within false stone, there's nought but dust below;
And where's that pious soul that thinking concious mind,
Wilt thou pretend vain cypher that's with thee inshrin'd?
Alas, my friend's not here with thee that I can find,
Here's not a Sergeant's body or a Sergeant's mind:
I'll seek him hence, for all's a like deception here,
I'll go to Heaven, and I shall find my Sergeant there.

TYRINGHAM.

THE settlement of this town commenced in 1739. In April of that year Lieut. Isaac Garfield, Thomas Slaton, and John Chadwick, moved into the place. In August following, Capt. John Brewer, from Hopkinton, moved into the town and put up a house; and erected mills for the use of the inhabitants, agreeably to a contract with the proprietors, on the site of the present Langdon mills. Concerning Capt. Brewer, it is worthy of notice that he was the father of 13 children, and his youngest child, Col. Josiah Brewer, (born in 1744,) had exactly the same number. In the French war beginning in 1744, several houses were fortified, and the fortifications were rebuilt upon the alarm produced by two or three murders in the vicinity, in August, 1755. The first and principal of these fortifications was around the house of Capt. Brewer, at which some soldiers were placed by the provincial government. Among these were William Hale, who had assisted in building Fort Massachusetts, in Adams. He became a settler here as early as 1747, and was afterwards a deacon in the church. About 1750, John Jackson moved into the town from Weston, and persons by the names of Thomas and Orton; and four brothers by the name of Warren, with their father Joshua, (the first person born in Watertown,) moved into it about the same time. The south part of the town, sometimes called South Tyringham, was generally settled at an early period; but Hopbrook, or North Tyringham, was left as an insalubrious marsh for more than 20 years. The first log house in this section of the town was erected by Dea. Thomas Orton, about 1762. The first settlers were Congregationalists, and in 1743 they erected a meeting-house. The church was formed of 8 members, Sept. 25, 1750, and on the 3d of October following Rev. Adonijah Bidwell, a native of Hartford, Con., and graduate of Yale College in 1740, was ordained its pastor. 1796, the society built the second meeting-house near the old one, which was dedicated July 4, 1798. In 1782, a portion of the people became Shakers, and set up meetings at each other's houses, according to the customs of this sect. In 1792, they collected together in a body, and formed themselves into what they denominate church order. Their settlement is in the north part of the town, at Hopbrook, where they own nearly 2,000 acres of land. The spiritual concerns of the three settlements at Tyring

In

ham, Hancock, and Enfield, in Con., are superintended by a presiding elder, assisted by a subordinate elder in each settlement. After the close of the revolutionary war some Baptists moved into the town from Rhode Island, and there are also some families of Methodists. These denominations have meeting-houses in the north part of the town.

This town is 7 miles in length and 5 in width. It was incorporated by the general court May 18, 1762. It is said the name was given at the suggestion of Lord Viscount Howe, who owned property at Tyringham in England, and who passed through this town a few days before he fell near Ticonderoga, July 6, 1758. This town is 14 miles S. E. of Lenox, and 116 W. of Boston. Population, 1,288.

WASHINGTON.

THIS town was purchased of the Indians, in 1760, by a company, most of which lived in Hartford and Suffield, Con. Some of the proprietors settled on their lands the same year. These were George Sloan, Andrew Mumford, William Milekan, Elijah Crane, Amos Beard, William Beard, Joseph Knox, Nathan Ingraham, Joseph Chaplin, and Matthew DeWolf. After the settlement was commenced, the proprietors met with some difficulty by the province authorities claiming a right to the township; whereupon Nathaniel Hooker, John Townly, and Isaac Sheldon, of Hartford, in behalf of themselves and 57 others, proprietors, in the beginning of 1762 petitioned the general court of Massachusetts to grant them the township. This grant was made in February of the following year, from which time till 1777 it was called Hartwood. The church in this town was formed as early as 1772. After two unsuccessful efforts to settle a pastor, the Rev. William G. Ballantine, of Westfield, was ordained, June 15, 1774. The first meeting-house was built in 1773, which stood till 1792, when a new one was erected. An Episcopal church, called St. John's church,

was formed here in 1825. There are a considerable number of Baptists and also of Methodists in the town.

This town was incorporated by its present name April 12, 1777. It being situated on the Green mountain range, the surface is uneven, diversified by hills and valleys. The township is well watered by pure springs and brooks, and furnishes in every part good farms for grazing. A few years since a considerable number of the principal farmers exchanged their improved farms in this place for new lands in Ohio, on the St. Lawrence, in New York, and elsewhere, and removed, by which the population and property of the town have been much diminished. This town is situated 8 miles E. of Lenox, and 120 W. of Boston. Population, 758.

WEST STOCKBRIDGE.

THIS town originally belonged to the Stockbridge Indians, and was sold by them in parcels to individual purchasers. The first person who settled in the town was Joseph Bryan, from Canaan, Conn., in 1766. In the fall of the same year Col. Elijah Williams, from Stockbridge, settled in that part of the town now called West Stockbridge village. Between this time and 1774, about 40 families settled in the town, among whom were the families of Increase Hewings, Elisha Hooper, Lemuel Burghardt, Christopher Brazee, John Minkler and Samuel Boynton, from different places in this state, and Ichabod Miller, Samuel Mudge, Elijah Slosson, Josiah Arnold, John Deming, Matthew Benedict, Roderic Messenger, Benjamin Lewis, John Ford, Ambrose Collins, and Amasa and James Spencer, from Connecticut. The early settlers generally planted themselves down in the north part of the town, where the lands are the most feasible and productive. The first meeting-house in this town was built in 1788, and the church organized June 4, 1789. Their first minister was the Rev. Oliver Ayres. The Baptist church was organized in 1792, and the society incorporated and a meeting-house built in 1794. The Rev. Samuel Whelpley, from Stockbridge, preached to them for a number of years from the time the society was formed.

This town was incorporated in 1774, and its name was derived from its relation to Stockbridge. Before its incorporation it was called Queensborough. A collection of rugged hills occupy the center of the town. Near the south-west corner is a mountain called Tom Ball, extending into Great Barrington and Alford, while Stockbridge mountain is on the eastern side. The south and south-eastern parts consist generally of rough, broken land. Lime quarries abound. There is much valuable marble in the town, of various colors; some hardly less inferior in whiteness to snow, some parti-colored, mostly with blue; some is dove colored, some is gray, and some is black. In Boynston's quarry, near the village, (in 1828,) an opening or fissure in the rocks, about 15 feet deep and from 18 to 4 inches in diameter, was charged with 204 pounds of powder. Upon firing it a mass of marble was raised, about 60 feet square on the surface and 8 feet thick, and at least twice that quantity was loosened.

West Stockbridge village is situated near the north line of the town, on Williams' river, a mill stream passing through the whole extent of the town. It consists of about 30 dwelling-houses, 2 churches, 1 Congregational and 1 Methodist, (erected in 1838,) and a number of mills for sawing marble. Stockbridge mountain rises immediately eastward of the village, and is the boundary between the towns. This place is 5 miles from Lenox, 5 from Stockbridge, 47 from Springfield, 63 from Hartford, 28 from Hudson, 30 from Albany, and 135 from Boston. Population of the town, 1,244.

WILLIAMSTOWN.

THIS town is in the north-west corner of the state. It was explored, together with the town of Adams, and the limits traced, by a committee of the general court, in 1749. The committee consisted of Col. Partridge, of Hatfield, and Col. Choate and Capt. Nathaniel Dwight, of Belchertown. Both towns were intended to be 6 miles square, but for some reasons they were laid out 7 miles in length and 5 in width. This township was called West Hoosic and the adjoining one East Hoosic. This was the Indian name of the tract embraced in these towns. The first meeting of the proprietors of which any record is preserved was held Dec. 5, 1753, by virtue of a warrant of William Williams, Esq., of Pittsfield, "issued in pursuance of a vote of the general court of Massachusetts Bay," Sept. 10, 1753. But "the house lots" in the north part of the town were laid out previous to this meeting. The settlement of this town, like that of others of that day, was retarded by Indian hostilities. Nehemiah Smedley, William and Josiah Hosford, and some other young men, came to prepare for themselves and families a settlement here, it is believed, in 1751 or 52. But they were interrupted by the increasing hostility of the Indians in those years. Returning to Connecticut, they enlisted in a company raised to protect the frontiers, and came again with others to this place and garrisoned a fort, which stood a few rods north of the present meeting-house, and also a block-house near the west college. A few soldiers were kept here in garrison till 1760. But the inhabitants were exposed to frequent alarms. Some were carried into captivity, and in an attack July 11, 1756, Capt. Chapin and two persons by the name of Chidestree were killed. The dangers nearly ceased at the close of the French war. The following are most of the early settlers from the first, till about 1770.

Capt. Smedley (at the head of this list) had five brothers who settled in the place.