Franklin County’s ‘hidden history’ revealed at Chamber of Commerce breakfast

GREENFIELD — The hidden history of Franklin County wasn’t kept a secret at the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Friday, as speakers shared vignettes of the region’s past, giving a voice to lesser-known historical figures.

Friday’s speakers at Greenfield Community College included Nolumbeka Project President David Brule, Historic Deerfield’s Director of Museum Education and Director of Archaeology Claire Carlson, and Carol Aleman of the Historical Society of Greenfield.

Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jessye Deane explained the idea for the breakfast’s theme came from a trip to a Bernardston cemetery, where a particularly ornate gravestone paints a picture of the life of an 18th-century doctor — someone who had a status of privilege to get a gravestone so they would be remembered in history.

“Today, we are highlighting the people without a headstone,” Deane explained. “We’re turning away from the Ben Franklins, and focusing on those that history has almost forgotten, and learning more about Franklin County’s lesser-known, influential figures.”

To start this exploration into the hidden history, Aleman began with a story about Mary and Clara Williams, who lived on High Street in Greenfield and were the daughters of the Rev. Avery Williams and Clarissa Williams.

The two sisters were teachers, and both would later teach at freedmen’s schools in the South after the Civil War in the 1860s, with Aleman noting that women like Mary and Clara were frowned upon by other white people for educating freed African Americans. It took “special dedication and determination to sustain this work,” Aleman said.

“It was that the Williams sisters of High Street shared their hearts and hospitality wherever they went and however their mission might unfold,” Aleman concluded.

Brule shared the extensive history of Native Americans in Franklin County. He showed a video highlighting the importance of a property owned and stewarded by the Nolumbeka Project called Wissatinnewag, which was a gathering place for thousands of years by Native peoples until May 1676, when the Great Falls Massacre took place and Native non-combatants were murdered by English forces under the director of Capt. William Turner.

The video also explained how this sacred land was excavated, removing artifacts and human remains. An effort was launched in the 1990s by the then Friends of Wissatinnewag (now the Nolumbeka Project) to help preserve the land and make it a site for traditional gardens and an educational area for school groups.

“You have not only an archeological perspective, but a historical, a spiritual perspective, as well as an incredibly interesting laboratory for ecological destruction and healing,” Brule said. “There’s a lot going on in this one little spot right here that very few people in Franklin County have been to or know about.”

Brule also highlighted the completed 12-year archaeological study done to reveal the extent of the Great Falls Massacre and the subsequent colonial retreat from the site of the massacre through Gill and Greenfield, as well as an upcoming Day of Remembrance event on Saturday, May 16, at the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls to mark the 350th anniversary of the Great Falls Massacre.

The final speaker, Carlson, shared two stories from the Revolutionary War. The first was that of Ceasar Bailey, an enslaved man who fought on the American side of the war effort and served under the last name of the Dickinson family who enslaved him. He fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill, fought against Nathaniel Dickinson who served with the British and was commended by General William Howe for “killing a rebel,” Carlson quoted.

Carlson began this story with a stark reminder: “Enslaved people served in the American Revolution, including those from Deerfield. The war for independence was fought mostly by men who owned little or nothing, including indentured servants, enslaved and free Black men, and jobless laborers.”

An additional bit of history Carlson shared was about Deerfield declaring during its June 25, 1776 Town Meeting that it was independent of the British empire, just days before July 4, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. She noted that the vote count was close, with Deerfield being split between loyalist and patriot factions at the time. Carlson also detailed the upcoming programming at Historic Deerfield to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States.