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.

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