EARLY HINSDALE
By Marion L. Ransford
Hinsdale's early settlers came from points in Connecticut about 1771, before the American Revolution. They were a hardy people, living simple lives in humble homes. These sturdy people were reverent, full of love for religious and
political freedom. They came to an unbroken wilderness, among savages , to make their homes. Before the settlers could build their houses, trees had to be felled, and cabins built as a shelter from wind and wolves. These cabins were
made of logs, with cracks plastered with mud, stone chimneys, roofs of boughs, usually on a hill, close to the hillside, as a double protection. These huts had no floors, boards not being available at first, though saw mills were soon
started. Beds
were of sticks driven into the ground, with saplings for head and foot, and sides, and hemlock boughs for the mattress.. Utensils of pewter were first used, with dishes for eating cut from birch bark. Fish and game, the principal food,
were in good supply. First the home, next the place of worship, and then the school, were plans of settlers in Partridgefield, as in other settlements. As early as 1772, settlers in Partridgefield met in homes and taverns for worship of
God. They met in
Rufus Tyler's Tavern, now the home of William Zeitler and family, and in Andrew Belcher's Tavern, across the road on the Flat, as Maple Street was then known. Indian grindstones and arrowheads found in town bespeak of Indians who dwelt in
the hills when the Miller, Watkins, Torrey, and Cleveland families rode their horses over the hills to locate new homes. Mr. Cleveland told of being followed by a wolf as he and his son went from their home t the sawmill near what is now
Wahconah Falls.
The first schoolhouse, built of logs, stood on "schoolhouse hill" opposite the present Shady Villa, built by Ichabod Emmons, who became a legislator, and took part in the dedication of the Bunker Hill monument. The first school had a
benches and desks cut from split logs. A select school on the Flat provided advanced education for the more fortunate. The First Congregational Church was built on schoolhouse hill and dedicated in 1799. The Rev. Theodore Hinsdale of
Connecticut, was instrumental in forming the new church, and in the incorporation of the town. Hinsdale was formed on June 21, 1804, from parts of Partridgefield, now Peru, and the Plantation of Ashuelot Equivalent, now Dalton. The church
building was
taken up bodily and moved about 1857 to its present site, nearer the railroad, and the new center of town.
The Hinsdale Academy, in Colonial design, was built in April, 1848, for use as an educational institute. The marble steps, leading to the veranda, are topped with wooden columns. This building was purchased by the town on January 14,
1867, and used as a public high school for several years, and now as a Town Hall. At present the first floor houses the Selectmens' and Assessors' rooms, and the Girl Scout and Boy Scout rooms. The upper floor has an auditorium of 200
person capacity.
The Baptists who had been meeting in lofts, homes and taverns, built a small wooden church in 1816 on the flat, nearly opposite the Congregational Church. Elder Jackson was a leader. This building later became the home of the late Miss
Harriet Roth, when a new, and larger building was erected on Water Street, now Main Street, in 1890, to "be near much water" for baptisms. This church closed its doors on Oct. 8, 1899. The building was being taken down about 1940 and was
destroyed by fire.
The Methodist Episcopal Church was built about 1825, of brick, next to the Congregational Church. The Methodists disbanded after the close of the Civil War. The house is now the home of William Campbell and his daughter, Mrs. John Record
and family. The building was used for a time as a wheelbarrow factory and toy wagon shop, and in 1885, the rear housed a basket shop.
St. Patrick's parish built a wooden building in 1852, and dedicated its church on September 19, 1869, with the Rev. A. Romano, assisting in the service. The Roman Catholics had suffered for many years the hardship of walking over Tully
Mountain to Pittsfield to attend Mass at St. Joseph's Church. Masses were occasionally said in private homes. St. Patrick's was a mission of St. Joseph's until Father Romano came as a settled pastor in 1868. The Rev. Daniel Cronin, pastor
from 1876 to 1906, left Hinsdale to become pastor of St. Agnes Church in Dalton. The present church was built for St. Patrick's in 1936 and the old edifice was taken down. First Mass in the new St. Patrick's Church was celebrated on July
18, 1937. The rectory, built about 1852, was destroyed by fire in January 1953, claiming the lives of the pastor, the Rev. James J. Courtney and his housekeeper, Mrs. Mary Moore. The parish bought the home of Dr. Edward J. Russell, school
superintendent in Pittsfield, and converted it into a new rectory.
The turnpike from Boston to Albany crossed the Housatonic River near Merriman's grist mill, and passed up the hill, over the Flat (Maple St.) to Peru and Boston. The old toll gate window is still in the home of William Gemmell and the
twon well where families on the Flat got their pure cold water, may yet be seen at the Gemmell home between the main house and the ell.
Ichabod Post, toll gate operator in the late 1700's was also a tanner and shoemaker. When the toll gate house was taken down , timbers were used to build, abut 1812 the present house, now occupied by the Gemmell family. The present home
of Mrs. May Sayres, was built about 1812 and contained the Post Office and general store kept by Monroe and Obadiah Emmons. Over the store was Emmons Hall, which was used for gala occasions. West of the store was Mack's Tavern, built by
John Talcott Mack before 1800. Two tailors, a hatter, and a cobbler also had shops on the Flat. Barber's visits were periodic.
The Boston and Albany Railroad sent its first train from Boston to Albany on December 27, 1841. Being wood fueled , and a steep grade at Hinsdale, engines stopped at the Hinsdale depot to be replenished. The Hinsdale Hotel in the center
served as a refreshment spot for the passengers and train crew while the train was being stoked, according to legend. The Berkshire Street Railway ran its first trolley car to Hinsdale from Pitsfield in 1903. It ceased local operation in
1919. The Hinsdale-Dalton bus line was opened in October 1919, by the late Charles W. Cobb.
Hinsdale has two large lakes, Plunkett, built about 1842 and Ashmere, built about 1872, both resevoirs having been built for water power for Hinsdale and Dalton mills. Ashmere Lake was named by William Cullen Bryant, who was impressed by
its poetic beauty while driving in his buggy from Hinsdale to his home in Cumminton. Bryant stated that the mere (marsh) was surrounded by ash trees so gave it the name "Ashmere."
When Paul Revere made his famous ride from Boston to Concord and Lexington in 1775, a less sung hero, a post rider for the government, started from Watertown, near Boston, on his historic ride to Philadelphia,carrying the message. "The
British Are Coming." through Massachusetts and Connecticut, into New York City, and on to Philadelphia, rode this patriot, stopping only to change horses and to have his message copied and read. This man, Isreal Bissell, at the close of
the Revolution, moved to Middlefield, where he married. He moved then to Hinsdale, to the southwest part of town. He is now buried in the old part of the Maple Street Cemetery. His message is in the archives of the Historical Society in
Philadelphia.
Maple street Cemetery is the town burying plot, with graves dating to pre--Revolutionary days. St. Patrick's Cemetery lies largely in Dalton, made on land bought from Patrick Daily, uncle of the late Thomas Kelly, former Hinsdale
Selectmen. Previous to buying this plot St. Patrick's dead were buried in Mount Maria Cemetery, which was located off Lyman Road on a hill back of the resent home the Choiniere family (the old Lyman home). Most of the bodies we removed
from Mount Maria to the new cemetery in 1869 though a few families chose to have their dead remain in the old lots. Other cemeteries include a very old one on the East Washington Road, near the Wahington line. This has been almost hidden
by shrubs and trees, and has tall stones datng back to the 1770 period of settlement. It has been unused for many years, and as an aniversary project was partialy cleared of brush this spring by Boy Scouts. The South Cemetery on the
Washington road is cared for each year by the boy Scouts. One soldier's grave is in a private cemetery, the North Cemetery, in the northwest part of town.
Hinsdale's early settlers gave up their dairy farming when Spanish sheep were introduced, and turned to sheep raising, thousands being raised annually for their wool. Much of the wool was manufactured in local mills, and some was baled
and shipped to other woolen mills in the country. Hinsdale's mountainous surface afforded, through its river, the Housatonic, excellent water power for its grist mills, saw mills, and woolen mills. The first mill on the Housatonic River
was incorporated by the Rev. Theordore Hinsdale in 1836, as the Hinsdale Manufacturing Co., with Frederick M. Curtiss, D.M. and William Hinsdale, owner. In 1885 this was the Hinsdale Woolen Mill, with 250 persons at its peak, was
demolished and taken down on October 25, 1931. It had manufactured fine suitings, and during World War ! made Army and Navy blankets.
The Plunkett Woolen Mill, owned by George T. Plunkett, made fine woolen cloth. Albert Parish had a warp and yarn mill built in 1882, on the site of the second sawmill in town, opposite the present home of the Earl Carmel family, in the
lower valley. A balmoral mill was built by Hogan in 1861, near the former Hickey home on Holmes Road. The Tracey sawmill, built about 1804 was destroyed by fire in 1884. Epaphras Curtiss in 1794 settled and built a sawmill near the
present Albert D. Reinhardt home on Tully Mountain.
Nathaniel Fisk built the first sawmill in town in 1771; the first public house was built by Rufus Tyler in 1797; the first lawyer was Thomas Allen; the first physician was Dr. Abel Kittredge; and Daniel Miller was the first magistrate. In
1889 the Hinsdale Fire District was formed and water was piped from the Belmont Reservoir on Warner Hill into the first house on November 30, 1890. The Fire Department was organized and a new fire truck was bought in 1929. The cornerstone
of the Hinsdale library was laid in 1866, and the building opened for use on June 1, 1867. The design of the building was copied from a house seen in England by the Rev. and Mrs. Kingsley Twining while on their wedding trip. Mrs. Twining,
the former Mary Plunkett, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Plunkett, died at the age of 29, and the library was in memory of her given by her family.
Geographically, Hinsdale is a part of the Taconic Range. It has an area of 21, 26 square miles, and an elevaton of 1436 feet, in 1954 a populaton of 1,675 persons. Two roads follow the early turnpikes--The Skyline trail, through
Middlefield, and the Lafayete trail, through Peru. A portion of the Appalachian Trail is near Plunkett Lake. Two high spots are Tully Mountain, in the southwest nd Warner Hill, in the south eaat. A glacial kettle hole, the "punch bowl" in
Tracy Park attracts geologists. It is a hollowed out place left by the glacier. Minerals are not found in quantity, and a gold rush in 1895 proved no bonanza. Gold and silver were found on the Watkins and French farms in town but the
quantity made mining impractical. A mine was built and stock sold, but the project failed a-borning.
Hinsdale's big industry is its summer camps which more than double the winter population. On Lake Ashmere are Camps Lenore, Taconic, Danby and the Baptist camp, Camp Ashmere. Plunkettt Lake has two Catholic camps , Camp Ferwood for girls,
and Camp Wyoma for boys, conducted by the Stigmatine Fathers; and Camp Romaca for girls.
One hundred fifty years has seen Hinsdale in prosperity and depression. The farms have shrunk, the mills are gone, but Hinsdale flourishes as a summer resort and as a residential town. Its people are mostly employed in Pittsfiield's
General Electric, Co., or in Dalton's mills or in other industries outside of town. The Christmas tree industry begun by Lewis B. Brague about 1864 is nearing an end; peat is sold to some extent. From 1772 when Nathaniel Tracy received a
land grant, where his descendants continue to live, families have found Hinsdale a healthy place in which to rear their children. Hinsdale residents work for, and dream of , a town where their children may have the best of schools, and
churches, and recreation, now , and in the future, as in the past Thus, from August 7 to August 15, Hinsdale's men and women, and boys and girls, will celebrate the sequicentennial of the town, looking hopefully ahead, as did their
ancestors on June 21, 1804 when in a spirit of joy, and Christianity and brothererly love they received the charter of incorporation of their little town, their home town---Hinsdale.
July 24, 1954
This Hinsdale History, was added to our web site by our Dayz Committee, in memory of Marion Ransford. She was the local news reporter for the Berkshire Evening Eagle, and the
Springfield Union. She was a longtime resident of Hinsdale.
It was 50 years in 2004 since Marion wrote this article of our town history, and think of all the changes since then.