Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire County, History, Town Histories, Church Histories, Vital Records and Genealogies
| Flood Views – Franklin County Mass. and Vicinity $15.00 Lake Pleasant, Mass: Frank Jones, 1936 Including Connecticut, Deerfield, Millers, Green and Hoosac River areas. With many scenes taken at the height of the flood and showing the havoc wrought by the Rivers and Streams. March 18 – 19 – 1936. 18 page 6x 9 pamphlet, good condition. Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts $4.00 post paid 1971 Guide book to the towns in Pioneer Valley with a description of each town and some of the historical sites. If your interested in visiting the area it makes a good starting point. 65 pages, paperbound In Debt To Shays $14.95 Edited by Robert A. Gross University Press of Virginia 1993 IN JANUARY 1787 Daniel Shays, a hero of the American Revolution, and an army of farmers, enraged by the program of heavy taxes imposed by the state government in Boston to pay the costs of the Revolutionary War, launched an attack on the federal arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts. The uprising was easily suppressed, but to this day debate still rages over Shay’s Rebellion, its relevance to the American Revolution, and its influence on the formation of the United States Constitution. At the time of his death, Daniel Shays was described by the Concord Gazette and Middlesex Yeoman as having ended up poor and needy as a result of his “crooked path and errors of former days.” Since that time Shays has become a folk hero. His rebellion has inspired novels, plays, ballads, murals, films, even the name of a folk singing group. Shay’s enshrinement as folk hero has had its academic correlation in left-leaning scholars who have viewed the rebellion as an authentic expression of the true, democratic yeomanry who populated the farms and backcountry of the early United States. Scholars on the other side of the political divide, however, have applauded the framers of the Constitution for rescuing the country from the kinds of anarchy represented by the uprising. In Debt to Shays takes a fresh perspective on the rebellion by challenging existing understandings of late eighteenth-century America and restoring the rebellion to its historical context. 418 pages, 6×9 softbound, good condition, some scratches on cover. Superior Court, Trial List for November Sitting 1930 at Greenfield, Massachusetts $10.00 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Franklin, SS. Table of contents: Traverse Jurors November sitting, 1930: includes name occupation and residents. Trial list, jury cases: includes docket number, parties involved and lawyers. Court cases: includes docket number, parties involved and lawyers 81 pages, pamphlet, covers are stained, the condition.The Diocese of Western Massachusetts 1901-1951 $15.00 The Rev. Donald Nelson Alexander Springfield Massachusetts: 1951 History of the diocese. Includes a list of the clergy as of January 1, 1951 and pictures of many of the churches with a brief chronology. 158 pages, 5 x 7 hardbound, very good condition. A Berkshire Sourcebook $8.00 Carney, William. Pittsfield, MA: Junior League of Berkshire County, (1976) A Book About a Place Reading the Landscape. Looking around, being free, and using this book. Identifying Places Looking at places, becoming involved with places, involving your community with places. Berkshire landscape types. An Overview Climbing a mountain to get a look at place and time. Mt. Greylock. People and the Land Of the Soil How farms in Revolutionary Berkshire grew not only wheat, rye, corn and hops, but a spirit of freedom. Sheffield. Energy and Enterprise How Berkshire streams and mountains determined where industry and commerce grew. Great Barrington. Inspiration How Berkshire beauty influenced people, and how people’s thoughts shaped Berkshire beauty. Stockbridge. Change Transportation and Transition How changing one part of the environment changes the whole environment. Lee. A Hill Town How nature and people change each other. Peru. A City Scene How an environment made by people can be made better for people. Pittsfield. Responsibility A Public Spot How a lot of individual actions can add up to the public interest. Pittsfield. An Industrial Town How one family shaped a place. Dalton An Aristocratic Landscape How one class shaped a place. Lenox. Village Improvement How a town acts together to better its environment. Stockbridge. The Landscape of Zoning How a town acts together to preserve its environment. Richmond. Inside and Outside Forces An Isolated Outpost How being alone in the wilderness drew international attention — and attack. Fort Massachusetts. Breaking the Berkshire Barrier How engineers blasted the Berkshires to link the Berkshires to the east. North Adams. Big Business How national politics entered the life of a Berkshire mill town. Adams. Settlement Instructions and Building Styles How Boston told its farthest settlement what its houses should look like. Williamstown. Freedom Spokesmen Some Berkshire documents. Making History: A Challenge to Students Ways to spend your time in school changing things outside of school. 208 pages. Illustrated with drawings and maps. Cover has a stain on it, corners bumped, good condition |
| Western Massachusetts a History 1636-1925 Vol III $35.00 New York and Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1926 This volume is biographies. e-mail me to see if your family member is in volume 3 after checking the surname list below. Surnames from volume 3&4: Abbott Achim Adam AdamsAddis Adriance Ahearn Albee Allbee Alden Alderman Aldrich Allen Allis Allyn Ames Anderson Andre Andrews Angers Antone Argy Aronstam Ashman Astill Atherton Atkins Adkins Audren Austin Authier Averill Babcock Bacon Bagg Bailey Bayley Baker Ball Ballou Bangs Barber Bardwell Barker Barnard Barnes Barney Barr Barrus Barrows Barry Barstow Bartkiewicz Bartlett Barton Bascom Batchellor Batchelor Baxter Beals Beaman Bearse Beaumier Becker BeckmannBeers Belcher Belden Baildon-Bayldon Bell Bement Bemis Benjamin Benson Berger Bergmann Berry Betsold Bickford Bicknell Bidwell Bigelow Billings Billing Birnie Bisbee Bliss Boardman Bodfish Boland Bolles Bolton Bond Bonneville Boom Borrner Bosworth Bothwell Bourbeau Bourne Bowles Bowman Boyd Boyle Boynton Bradley Bradway Brainerd Brand Brandle Bray Breor Brewer Brewster Bridges Bridgrman Brigrham Brown Brownell Browning Brunelle Bryant (Briant) BucklandBuckner Bugbee Bulkley (Bulkeley) Bulman Bump Bunnell Burden Burdick Burgess Burke Burnett Burnham Burns Burr Butterfield Buzzee Byrne Cadorette Cadwell Cady Calhoun Campbell Cande Canedy Carl Carlisle Carman Caron Carroll Carson Carter Cary (de Kari-de Kary) Case Casey Cassidy Caswell Chaffln Chandler Channel Chapin Charest Charles Charlton Charron Chase Cheney Chevalier Childs Chipman Christensen Churchill Clair Clapp Clark ClarkeCleary Cleeland Cleveland Clough Coates Coe Coo Coes Conn Colby Collingrwood Comey (McComey) Comins Conant Conaty Conlin Connelly Connor Coogan Cook Cooke Cooley Coolidge Cooney Cooper Copeland Cordes Corsiglia Costello Couch Couillard Cowls (Cole) Coxen Craft Crafts Crawford Crean Crevier Crocker Cronin Crook Crosier Crossman Crummett Cruttenden Cummings Cunningham Currier Curtin Cushing Cushman Cutler CymanDe Falco De Witt du Mont Daggett Daignault Dale Daley Daniels Darling Davenport Davidson Davies Davis Dawley Day Dayton Dearden Decker Deinlein Delano Dempsey Denham Dennett Derry Devanny Dexter Dibble Dietz Dingman Dion Dix Dodd Dolan Donais Donaldson Doran Dorr Dow Dowd Dower Downey Downs Drapeau Driscoll Dunbar Dunn Dunnell Duryea Dwight Dwyer Dyer Easland Eberhardt Eberlein Edwards Egan Ehrltch Eisold Elder Elliot Ellis Ely Elihu England Enslin Entwistle Erard Esleeck Evans Evarts Ewing Eyre Fagan Fairbanks Fairchild Fairfield Fairhurst Fallon Fargo Farnham (Farnum) Farnsworth Farr Farrar Farwell Fassett Fausey Fein Feldman Ferrier Ferry Field (del Feld Feld) Finn Finneran Fisher Fitz Gerald Fletcher Fligier Flore Flynn Foley Folsom (Foulsham) Foot Fortin Foss Foster Francis Frankowski Franz Frary French Frost Fuller Fyfe Gagnon Galbraith Gale Gallagher Galleher Gallup Gamwell Gange Gardner Gass Gath Gay Gaylord Gelineau Gerke Grandison Gibbs Giddings Gilbert Gillett Gilmore (Gillmore) Glazier Gleason Goddard Goddu Godfrey Godin Goewey Gold Goldin Goodrich Gordon Gurdon Gottesman Gould Graham Grandchamp Granfield Grange Grant Graves Greeley Green Greene Greer Greile Griffin Grise Groark Gunsolus Haas Hadley Hafey Hagyard Haigis Hales Halford Hall Hiland Hamilton Hammond Hampson Hancock Hanson Hapgood Harlow Harrington Harris Harrison Hartnett Harwood Haskins (Hoskins) Hastings Hatch Havill Hawkins HawleyHayes Heady Healy Hegy Hemenway (Hemingway) Hemond Hendee Hennelly Henry Herbert Hersey Hewitt Heyman Herman Hickey Hicks Higgins Hillenbrand Hills Hiltpold Hitchcock Hobart Hobson Hodskins Holden Holland Hollingworth Hopkins Horton (Houghton) Hosford Howard Hosmer Houghton Howard (Hayward) Howes Howland Hoyt Hubbard Hughes Huntington Hurlbut Hurley Hurowitz Huxley Ingraham Ives Jahrling Jangro Jarvis (Gervais) Jarvis Jeannotte Jeffway (Geoffroy) Jenks Johonnott Johnson Jolly Jones Joslyn (Josselyne-Joslin) Jubinville Judelson Kahl Kamberg Katz Kaynor Keedy Keefe Keegan Kellogg Kelly Kendrick Kennedy Kenney Kentfield Kerigan Ketchen Keyes Kiely Kienle Killeen Kimball King (Kinge-Kynge) Kingsbury Kingsley Kinne Kinney Kneeland Knight Knowlton Knox Koch Kohlhofer Kolwicz Kossick LaFleur LaRiviere Lacey Lally Lane Langtry Lasker Latham Lathrop Lawler Lawley Lawrence Leach Leahan Lee Lekousjyk Leonard Leopoulos Lewis Ley Lilley Lindholm Liston Locke Lockwood Long Longley Loomis Loretan Loud Lovelace Lowell Ludden Luippold Lunt Lyman (Leman-Lyeman) Lynch Lynn Lyon Lyons MacDonald MacKenzie McCarthy McClench McCool McCorkindale McCoy McDonald McElwain McGarry McGinity McGrath McGregory McKechnie McLaughlin McMahon McPeck McQueston (MacQueston) Mackintosh Madden Magranis Maher Mahoney Malley Manning Manson Manley Marble March (Merz) Mariz Marlow Martin Martinelli Marvell Mason Mattoon Maynard Mayo Medlicott Meehan Mellen Mercer Merriam (Meriam) Merrill Metcalf Miller Mills Minott Mitchell Mitten Montague Montgomery Montmeny Moore Moreau Morey Moriarty Morton Mosher Mowry Mullany Mullen Mulligan Mullins Mulrone Murphy Murray Myers Mytinger Nay Neal Neild Nelson Nevins Newell Newton Nicholson Niles Nilsson Nim Noble Nolen Noonan Novak Nowak O’Callahan O’Connell O’Connor O’Donnell O’Hearn O’Malley O’Neil O’Neill O’Shea Oatman Oberempt Odette Ogan Oliver Oppenheimer Osborne Otto Owen Paddock (Pezdek) Page Paine Parfitt Parker Parmele ( Parsons Paper Co. The) Parsons Partridge Payne Poach Pearson Pease Peck Peirce (Pers) Peirson Pelissier Pelletier Pepin Perkins Petersen Petit Phelps Phillips Pierce Pinney Pitcher Plumb Plunkett Polmatier Pomeroy Pond Porter Potter Potvin Power Powers Pratt Prediger Prentiss Preston Price Pringle Proctor Proulx Prouty Puffer Punderson Purrington Putnam (Puttenham) Quinn Rahar Raidy Rainey Raleigh Ramage Ramsdell Randall Ransom Rathbone Ray Redstone Reed Reedy Reopell Retallick Reynolds Rhodes Rice Rich Richards Richmond Ricketts Riddell Riley Rist Robbins Roberts Robinson Robson Roche Roe Rogers Roney Rooney Root Roote Rose Rosenblum Rosenzweig Ross Ruder Russell Rust Ryan Ryhysc Ryther Sainte-Marie St. Onge San Soucie Samble Sanctuary Sanderson Sanford Sauers Savage Savery Sawyer Sayre Scanlon Schnare Schortmann Schott Schtihle Schwenger Scott Searle Seavey Sedgwick Segur Sessions Severance (Severans) Seybolt Shannon Shattuck Shaw Shea Sheehan Shepardson Sherman Shipman Shovan Shuart Shumway Sibley Siegel Simmons Simons Simpson Sinclair Singleton Sisson Skillingrs Skinner Slate Slavin Slocomb Sloper Smart Smead Smith Snow Spaulding (Spalding) Spear Spellman Sprague Squier Stafford Staples Starkweather Starzyk Steams Stebbins Steele Steiger Steimer Steuerwald Stevens (Stephens) Stevenson Stewart Stimson Stoddard Stone Stoughton Stowell Strecker Strickland Strong Sullivan Summers Sunn Surprenant Swanson Swift Swirsky Sykes Taber Tait Talmadge Tannatt Tassone Taylor Teague Teahan Tenney Terry Tessier Tetreault Thibert Thompson Thouin Tifft Tilton Toniolli Tower Towne Traver Trott True Tucker Tupper Turnbull Turner Tuttle Underwood Van Heusen Van Norman Van Train Vaille Vanderlick Vining Wadsworth Wagner Wakelin Walker Wall Wallace Walpole Walsh Waltz Ward Ware Warner Warren Washburn Waterhouse Waterman Webber Weis Welch Wellington Wellman Wells Wentworth Weschler West (West Boylston Manufacturing Co. ) Westervelt (Van Westervelt) Weymouth Whalen Wheat Whipple White Whiting Whitman Whitmore Whitney Whittier Whittlesey Wichrnann Wickham Wilcox Willcox Williams Willard Willis Willson Wilson Wing Wolcott Wood Woodburn Woodlock Woods Wooster Wright Wyatt Young Zujewski Pages 1-448 pages, hardbound, good condition, covers have some spots on them, corners bumped. Amherst The Village of Amherst Mass. A Landmark of Light $34.95 Frank Prentice Rand The Amherst Historical Society, 1958 Narratives PART ONE: COLONIALISM, AND THEREFROM-A COLLEGE Norwottuck Precinct Days District Days Rebellious Patriots Disunion Within Law and Disorder Amherst Academy Emeritus A College on the Hill PART Two: INDUSTRY, AND THEREFROM-ANOTHER COLLEGE The Industrial Era Via Amherst Channels of Communication Fire and Water Traders and Tradesmen Farmers and Agriculturists PART THREE: VIOLENCE, AND THERE FROM-ORDER Battle Cries of Freedom Crime and Punishment The War to End War Sportsman’s Park Still Another War Democracy in Action PART FOUR: NATURE, AND THEREFROM-SCIENCE Our Amherst-a Garden Acts of God Family Doctor Observers of the Natural World PART FIVE: CREATIVENESS, AND THEREFROM-BE A Ride with Brown Printers’ Ink Highlights on Footlights With Clef and Palette Amherst Authors-Mostly Poets PART Six: ASPIRING ENTERPRISE, AND THEREFROM ENLIGHTENMENT Master Spirits Embalmed and Treasured Outpost of Piety Renewal by Shock The University-Manifest Destiny Investments in Literacy Lamps of Faith VILLAGE, VALE APPENDIX Public Servants Pastorates Some Amherst Clubs College Presidents Acknowledgment Index Pictures: House and Site Maps end papers, Heart o’ Town jacket, Charles Frederick Morehouse frontispiece, The Strong House, The Stockbridge House, A 1772 map, Rev. David Parsons, Jr., Dr. David Parsons, 3rd, Second Meetinghouse and Parsonage, Amherst Academy, Mount Pleasant Institute, Amherst College, about 1850, Factory Hollow Falls, Mill Valley Falls, The Hills Hat Factory, The Burnett Hat Factory, Amherst House, Hygeian Hotel, A 1908 Trolley Car, The Merchants Row Fire, The Palmer Block Fire, Merchants Row, about 1865, Merchants Row, about 1895, Phoenix Row, about 1840, Phoenix Row, about 1890, The Amherst College War Memorial, The Wildner Reception, The Village Green, 1889 164, The Common, 1929 165, The Common after the Hurricane, In Front of Merchants Row, The Dickinson Houses, The Frost Birthday Dinner, The Jones Library. The North Amherst Library, Munson Memorial Library, The Goodell Library, The Folger Library, The Converse Library, Amherst College, 1955, The Lord Jeffery Inn, The University from the Southeast, The University from the Northeast. 337 pages, hardbound Essays on Amherst’s History (Mass.) $35.00 Amherst, Mass: The Vista Trust, 1978 Table of contents: PART ONE, The Factionalism of the Founding Fathers 1730—1800, Early Amherst by Hugh F. Bell and Andrew Raymond, A Day in 1800 by Hugh F. Bell, PART TWO, The Enterprises, Contentions, Civic Consciousness, and Customs of Nineteenth Century Amherst, The Rise and Decline of Manufactures and Other Matters George R. Taylor, A Dry and Thirsty Land by Theodore Baird, The Growth of Civic Consciousness by Polly Longsworth, An Amherst Neighborhood in 1870 by Helen von Schmidt, Two Generations of Amherst Society by Susan H. Dickinson, PART THREE, The self-conscious Small Town 1900—1945, Versions of Community by Doris E. Abramson and Robert C. Townsend, A Half Century of Change in Town Government by David A. Booth, An Immigrant’s Boyhood in Amherst by Edward Landis, PART FOUR, The Great Change 1946—1976, The Gown Overwhelms the Town by Theodore P. Greene, Toward Responsive Government by Winthrop S. Dakin, Public Education in Amherst by Rhoda S. Honigberg, Planners and Developers by James A. Smith, The Changing Climate of Amherst by Philip Truman Ives, An Amherst Bibliography by Sheila Rainford, Index. 452 pages, hardbound, dj, VF/VG, in bodart cover. Alumni and Non-Graduates of Amherst College 1872-1896 $19.95 Compiled and edited by W. L. Montague, M. A., Ph. D., Class of ’55 Amherst, Mass 1901 Sample pages A biography of alumni. Usually gives full name, date and place of birth, parents names, High School, business, degrees, spouse, spouses father, spouses father’s place of residence, date of marriage, number of children and if deceased the cause date and place of death. (see sample pages) 492 pages hardbound, worn corners Deerfield Deerfield Epitaphs $45.00 Copied by C. Alice Baker and Emma L. Coleman Deerfield, Mass: The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, 1924 (From the Introduction) “ACTING upon the request made several years ago by the New England Historic Genealogical Society of Boston, Miss C. Alice Baker of Cambridge and Deerfield began the work of copying the inscriptions on the gravestones of the old burying ground in this town. The town records of New England often lack facts which the graveyards can supply, and when a stone disappears as indeed happened between the beginning and ending of this copying the record is lost. For this purpose the Genealogical Society is always glad to furnish suggestions as to methods, to supply durable paper and to care for manuscript copies in its library. In this case, the manuscript has been held until the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association found a fitting time to print. Many hands have, from time to time, helped with the copying, but the undersigned, who after Miss Baker’s death, assumed the obligation of finishing the work acknowledges especially the help of Miss Lucy Pratt.” 49 pages, 6×9 hardbound, good condition The New England Outpost – War & Society in Colonial Deerfield $ 18.00 (New Book) (In print $25.00) Richard I. Melvoin (from the book flaps) Deerfield, Massachusetts, is known to many as a remarkably well-preserved colonial village and the site of Deerfield Academy, the prestigious prep school. But in the first half-century of its existence, Deerfield Jay uneasily at the farthest edge of a bloody frontier. In the years from 1665 to 1715, Deerfield came under armed attack thirty times, culminating in the “Deerfield Massacre” of 1704 when over half the population was killed or captured by French and Indian raiders, and half the town was burned. New England Outpost, Richard Melvoin’s engrossing history of Deerfield’s beginnings, reveals a rich tapestry of New England life on what was then the frontier. We learn how Deerfield was settled by Puritan farmers from Dedham and other established towns, how the fledgling institutions of the church and local government tied the new settlement to the rest of New England, and how these ties were threatened as successive European wars between England and France spilled over into their North American colonies. Most important, Melvoin shows us the unexpected complexity of the Indians’ role in all these events. Until the early 1700s the balance of power in Deerfield, and throughout the New England frontier, was not shared solely between French and English colonists, but was divided as well among more than a dozen Indian tribes. The Indian attitude to colonial settlement was thus never simple. It was part of a complex pattern of relations among different tribes, including bloody wars, that sometimes did more than the colonial invaders to weaken the Indians’ hold on their land. Rich in the incidents and adventures of the early frontier, and alert to the surprising dimensions of Indian life, New England Outpost is fascinating history RICHARD 1. MELVOIN is Assistant Dean of Admissions at Harvard-Radcliff College. Formerly he was Dean of Studies and Chairman of the History Department at Deerfield Academy His Ph.D. in history is from the University of Michigan. He lives in Wayland, Massachusetts, with his wife and two daughters. 368 pages, 6×9 hardbound, dust jacketHistoric Deerfield: Houses and Interiors $17.50 Samuel Chamberlain and Henry N. Flynt. Illustrated by Samuel Chamberlain New York: Hastings House, 1965. Revised and enlarged edition of “Frontier of Freedom” (Hastings House, 1952) 145 pages, 7 x 10 hardcover, no DJ, b & w photos by Samuel Chamberlain; very good condition Easthampton Gods Stewards Samuel & Emily Williston $14.95 Frank P Conant Easthampton, MA Williston Northampton School 1991. The story of Samuel & Emily Williston, founders of Williston Academy. They also founded Easthampton Rubber Thread Company and the Glendale Elastic Fabrics Company which were forerunners of the United Elastic Corporation. Table of contents: Beginnings 1795-1822, Starting with Buttons 1823-1831, Success and Tragedy 1832-1837, A compact Fulfilled 1838-1841, New Directions 1842-1848, Manufacturer 1849-1859, The Civil War Years 1860-1865, Reverses 1866-1872, Valedictory 1873-1885. 143 pages, 9×6 hardbound, dust jacket has a few scratches, very good condition. Gill Vital Records of Gill, Mass. to the Year 1850 $18.50 Boston: NEHGS 1904 THE TOWN OF GILL, Franklin County (formerly in Hampshire County, until 1811), was established September 28, 1793, from a part of Greenfield. February 28, 1795, a part of Northfield was annexed to Gill. March 14, 1805, the island called Great Island was annexed to Gill after April 1, 1805. 97 pages, covers stained. inside front cover paper is splitting at seams in several places, pages in good condition. Great Barrington Vital Records of Great Barrington, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 $39.95 Boston, Mass.: New England Historical Genealogical Society, 1904 Town of Great Barrington, Berkshire County, Was Established June 30, 1761, from a Part of Sheffield. February 16, 1773, a Part of Great Barrington Was Included in the New District of Alford. February 16, 1773, Lands Adjoining Great Barrington Were Annexed. October 21, 1777, a Part of Great Barrington Was Included in the New Town of Lee. February 11, 1779, a Part of Great Barrington Was Annexed to Alford. During 18, 1819 Part of Great Barrington Was Annexed Alford. 89 pages, 6 x 9 hardbound, edge wear, Corners bumped, covers have light soiling. Granby Granby Mass. Bicentennial 1768-1968 $25.00 (out of Print) The Town of Granby 1968 History of Granby with lots of photographs. Includes listing of soldiers from the French and Indian wars through Korea 320 pp. hardcover Greenfield A Pictorial History of Greenfield Massachusetts $38.00 The Greenfield Historical Society, 1953 Produced for the 200th anniversary of Greenfield. Lots of great pictures with captions. Includes a Cities Service flyer commemorating the 200th anniversary of Greenfield with a timeline of its history. (From the introduction) For fifty-three years Mr. Charles E. Winslow of Greenfield has been patiently gathering together these remarkable pictures, many of them going back to the infancy of the camera. He has given his collection to the Historical Society of Greenfield, where it is on permanent display. The Society, in order to make this almost direct experience of Greenfield’s past available to all as well as to posterity has published this volume. edited by Mr. Winslow. We feel that its value will increase with the ‘ears. Greenfield has existed as a town for two centuries, but how it may have looked before the advent of the honest and unflinching eye of the camera, we can only guess. In this book, however, we are able to show a very good overall picture of what one might have seen here from 186o to about 1900. The camera does not flatter, as we all have regretfully observed; on the other hand, it tells few lies. We all tend to regard its record as veracious; we know that a thing in the past had reality when we see photographic evidence. So, although our pictures of Greenfield may not show all the romantic beauty inherent in the light and color of a once-charming village scene, they will transmit a genuine feeling of solid kinship with a departed yesterday. The sequence in which the pictures are arranged was planned, although a little loosely, to present the impressions of a newcomer in Greenfield at any time from 186o until 1900. First he would have been aware of the Common (“Bank Row”), the heart of the matter then as now. Next he would have become familiar with the ways of travel in and out of town, the river, the railroads, the trolley cars, and the many bridges. After a few days he would have found his way up and down Main Street, observed the schools, the post-office, and all the side streets. After becoming an established citizen associated with one of the growing industries he might have joined the Cycling Club or the Comedy Club or one of the many other delightful social activities of a pleasure-loving period. Since the photographs of the 1860’s and 1870’s were taken with very long exposures on glass plates prepared by the operator, it is little wonder that a stage-coach rolling up the dusty street to the grateful refinements and refreshments of the Mansion House, may be a little blurred. The best procedure in enjoying very old photographs is to close the eyes half-way and let imagination go to work from there, filling in the brightness and movement of the grand old scene. Then open the eyes wide and really use them, remembering that the most minute detail in a photograph was something actually there, and that its nature and meaning will reappear with patient study. These pictures deserve and need the most careful study if we are fully to recapture the sense of the past. The ladies will stroll once again in the handsome garden of the Hovey house; the three shabby musicians playing on Main Street will again strike up a haunting melody from “The Bohemian Girl”; the first trolley will clang stubbornly at an unconvinced nag; perhaps Thackeray or Wendell Phillips or Emerson will stroll out of the Davis house on Federal Street. Or is it, perhaps, the late winter of 1888 with the whole town as silent as the moon, buried in drifts of snow ten to twenty feet deep? Or is it such a motionless moment in a breathless August afternoon that not a rig is stirring the powdery dust on East Main Street, and no sound is heard but one locust singing reveille from an elm in front of the Pratt house to one sleeping G.A.R. veteran on the “piazzer” of the “Gun Shop across the way? The final conclusion from all these pictures is un-escapable — that a more leisurely life than ours must have been the lot of Victorian Greenfield. We think of it, perhaps too romantically, perhaps correctly, as a time of long afternoons, hammocks, long novels, long snug winters with cutter-racing and sociable’s, of a generally easy pace, careful choice of language, and profound seriousness and optimism about man and his fate. NOTE: Many of the earliest pictures in this book were taken by C. M. Moody; many of those taken in the period around 1900 are by Mr. Winslow; several were taken by the late T. C. Forbes (Forbes camera shop) The photograph of the village blacksmith was taken by the famous Allen sisters of Deerfield…. 101 pages, 7×9 hardbound, very good condition. Hadley Under a Colonial Roof-Tree (Hadley, Mass.) $25.00 Aria S. Huntington Cambridge: Riverside Press 1892 Fireside chronicles of early New England Table of contents: The old house, Our ancestry of freemen, The entrance to the woods, The spire of Hatfield church, A diary of long ago (Elizabeth Porter), The house, from the garden, Fireplace in the long room, Later life in the old mansion, The family burial-place, Appendix. 126 pages, hardbound, good condition, covers are faded and have light smudging on them, corners bumped. Hatfield Hatfield Massachusetts 1670-1970 $39.95 Hatfield, Mass: The Tercentenary History Committee, 1970 Table of contents: AUTHORS Chapter 1 — Mrs. A. Cory Bardwell, Chapter 2 — Mrs. Philip Z. Maiewski, Chapter 3 — Mrs. Gordon A. Woodward, Jr., Chapter 4 — Mrs. Samuel Osley, Chapter 5 — Mrs. Gordon 0. Williams, Chapter 6 — Mrs. Robert C. Byrne, Chapter 7 — Mrs. Francis W. Cole, Jr., Chapter 8 — Mrs. Chester J. Jablonski, Chapter 9 — Mrs. Richard D. Belden, Chapter 10 — Mrs. Henry Betsold Chapter 1 — A CLEAR CALL (1670 – 1700) Indians Well Established the First Settlers Early Hatfield Discipline and Diligence Dispute with Hadley First Meeting House First Stockade Built Hatfield’s Bloodiest Massacre Peace Brings Growth and Changes First School Established King Williams’ War New Industry Begins Chapter 2 — A TIME OF TRIAL AND TERROR (1700 -1730) Queen Anne’s War Farming Chapter 3 — DRUMS OF WAR (1730 -1760) Religious Influence Boundaries and Laws Transportation French and Indian War Daily Tasks Industry and Agriculture Chapter 4 — TORIES AND TAXES (1760 – 1790) Israel Williams Religion and Politics Hatfield’s Role in the Revolution Shays’ Rebellion Chapter 5 — THE TURN OF THE CENTURY (1790 – 1820) Party Politics Clothing Busy as Bees Borning Rooms and Coffin Doors Food Drink Hatfield’s Bridge from Path to Pike An Excursion Schools and Books Hampshire County Formation Chapter 6 — THE THRIVING YEARS (1820 – 1850) Broomcorn Oliver Smith New Congregational Church Education and Social Life Valley Settlements Established In the Beginning Chapter 7 — CHANGING TIMES (1850 -1880) The First Immigrations Tobacco The Old Lead Mine 75,000 Men for 90 Days The Smiths Chapter 8 — LEGACIES AND NEW FACES (1880 -1910) Hatfield Legacies Polish Immigration Central European Immigration Period of Changes Social Gatherings Electric Roads Hatfield’s Utilities Chapter 9 — WITHIN RECALL (1910 -1940) Transportation Innovations Education Facilities Increased World War I The “Flu” — Daylight Saving — New Town Hall Depression Years U.S. Post Office 1927 Flood 1936 Flood 1938 Hurricane Chapter 10 — FROM BENTS TO BEDROOMS (1940 – 1970) World War II Bedrooms Needed Schools Sports and Clubs 92 page 6×9 Hardbound, good condition Holyoke Holyoke, Massachusetts, A Case History of the Industrial Revolution in America. $75.00 Constance McLaughlin Green. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1939. 425 pages, 6 x 9 hardcover with dust jacket; illus. front piece, foldout rear map, good condition; dust jacket soiled, stuck to cover, and inside clipped. <con> Ludlow A History of Ludlow, Massachusetts 1774-1974 $65.00 Herbert L. McChesney Ludlow, Mass: Bicentennial Committee 1978 Table of contents; List of Illustrations, List of Maps, Ludlow Before 1774, Town Government, The Churches, Cemeteries, Education, The Hubbard Memorial Library, Agriculture, Industry and Business, Nationalities, Transportation, Communications and Utilities, Public Safety, Military History, Houses, Natural Disasters, Sports, Recreation and Entertainment, Clubs and Organizations, Appendix: A. Division of the East Outward Commons, B. The Letter from Ludlow, England, C. Town Government, D. School and Ministry Lands, E. Churches, F. Ludlow Residents in the Armed Forces, CG. The Bicentennial Celebration, H. “Farms of Ludlow”, Bibliography, Index, Sources of Illustrations. 608 pages, hardbound, good condition Northampton No Ordinary Man – Judge Forbes and His Library 1894-1994 $12.95 Allison McCrillis Lockwood Northampton, Mass. Daily Hampshire Gazette 1994 Interesting history of the Northampton Library 108 pages, softbound, very fine condition Rowe Gold on Mount Grace (Warwick, Mass.) $7.50 (out of print) Harlan G. Medcalf Miller’s River Publishing Company, 1985 (from the introduction) “Gold On Mount Grace” is the story of a child’s life in a small rural town remote from the rest of the world during the days of the opening of the twentieth century – before the days of electricity, the telephone and the automobile. The author, then a lad of about six years, was returning to the ancestral home, the Goldsbury homestead, built by his great grandfather in 1826. Capt. James Goldsbury, a leading citizen, lived to be 101 years old, dying in 1898. It was his daughter Ann Maria who had cared for him during his declining years, now living alone, who invited her grand niece, Czarina Goldsbury Metcalf, and children to join her during the summer. The experiences of “Gold,” as the boy was called, and his sister Ethel – at school, church, work and play, in every phase of life in the country – are described vividly. It was a time when children were left to their own resources to provide amusement…” Southampton A Continuing Story – The History of the First Congregational Church of Southampton Mass 1743-1981 $13.00 Compiled and Published by the History Book Committee First Congregational Church Southampton, Mass. 1981 Table of Contents: Before the Beginning, the Development of Congregationalism, the First 60 Years, the Flowering, Mighty Shakings, Peaceful Years between the Wars, The Last 60 Years, the Church Building, Former Organizations, the Female Charitable Society, Church Music, Ladies Aid Society, the Sunday School, Young People Societies, Epilogue, Appendix 190 pages, good condition Turners Falls A History of the First Baptist Church of Turner’s Falls, Massachusetts 1872-1922 $10.00 Antonio J. Stemple Turner’s Falls: 1922 Entertaining history of the church. 16 page pamphlet, covers are stained otherwise good condition. Wales Wales Massachusetts Centennial 1866 $8.40 Absalom Gardner Wales, Mass: Wales Historical Society, 1995 reprint, 1866 An address delivered in Wales, October 5, 1862; being the Centennial Anniversary of the Municipal Organization of the Town; with additions and extensions upon some matters needful to bring the history of town down to January 1, 1866. To which is annexed a “Roll of Honor,” being a catalogue of the names, etc., of soldiers from this town who served in the armies of out government in the late Civil War. 44 page pamphlet, very good condition. Williamstown Origins in Williamstown, Massachusetts $38.00 Arthur Latham Perry, LL.D. Heritage, 1993 (1894) reprint Williamstown is located in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. One chapter is devoted to natural and man-made. features of the area, and includes information on early exploration and residents. Fort Massachusetts was built In 1745 in response to unrest among the Indians and French, and the encroachment by Dutch farmers from New York. Life at the fort is detailed, giving, among other topics, a roster of soldiers copies of correspondence, and stories of wartime Indian, depredations. The fort gave rise to the town of West Hoosac which in turn gave rise to Williamstown, established 1765. Two chapters describe the towns’ early history, transcribe official documents, and provide genealogical and biographical details on some families. The Williams family is closely tied to the area – Captain Ephraim Williams obtained an early, if not the first, grant to land near Fort Massachusetts – and one chapter is devoted to biographical information on the family, especially the military careers of Ephraim and Colonel Israel Williams. A fascinating history, written with an eloquence rarely used by authors today 631 pages, 2 vols., illus., index, softbound, new. |