Editor’s note: The Recorder pulled from its archives, relevant local history books and the Library of Congress to explore Revolutionary War-era stories from Franklin County.
Many of the towns in western Franklin County, while maybe not incorporated into the towns that they would eventually become, played active roles during the American Revolution, whether that came in the form of community-wide efforts, the actions of individual citizens or the deaths of young men at war.
Ashfield
Not everyone who lived in Ashfield during the American Revolution was supportive of declaring independence from Great Britain. Samuel Belding, a five-term Selectboard member and Ashfield’s first town clerk, was a staunch Loyalist, due in no small part to the office of Justice of the Peace that was bestowed to him by King George III.
But a group of residents in town felt that something needed to be done about the “oppressive and unconstitutional laws of the British Parliament,” according to the Library of Congress. Sixty-five residents signed onto a covenant, where it was written that they would “not be aiding … in any trade with the Island of Great Britain, until she withdraws her oppressive hand, or until a trade is come into by the several colonies.”
During this same time, there was a new minister in Ashfield, the Rev. Nehemiah Porter. Unlike Belding, Porter was a Patriot, and requested leave to join the Continental Army at Saratoga Springs. Porter would eventually join the Army as a chaplain.
Funds were to be distributed to Porter to make the journey, but he didn’t receive the money, and the town realized that Belding had been keeping it from the minister. It was decided that the town treasurer and some members of Ashfield would go to Belding’s residence and demand the money so that Porter could leave for New York.
Belding and Tories in Ashfield faced other troubles as the American Revolution carried on. Not trusting the Loyalists among them, Ashfield residents voted on Aug. 22, 1777, to bring Belding and other men to trial as “certain persons thought to be inimical to the American States.” These men were to be confined in town, at the house of Capt. Samuel Bartlett. One week later, however, on Aug. 29, 1777, the town voted to “dismiss prisoners from close confinement.”
Charlemont
One of the first towns in what is now western Franklin County to take action on the side of the revolutionaries was Charlemont. In an 1855 book titled “Charlemont as a Plantation,” author Joseph White writes that at a Town Meeting on Oct. 3, 1773, Charlemont residents came together to “take into consideration the melancholy state of the province of Massachusetts Bay, occasioned by the unnatural oppression of the parent state of the province.” Following this meeting, a list of grievances, primarily taxation without representation, was drafted and sent to Boston.
The next year, Hugh Maxwell was sent as Charlemont’s representation to the Provincial Congress in 1774. Early in 1775, a committee was formed in Charlemont to track the activities of the Continental Congress.
According to White’s book, “a company of minute men was early formed,” under Capt. Oliver Avery with then Lt. Maxwell. With how large that company already was, a second group of men from Charlemont, totaling 56 individuals, formed under Col. William Prescott, with Maxwell rising to the rank of captain. Even more men from Charlemont volunteered and joined Prescott’s company.
Away from the front lines, the town of Charlemont began to prepare itself. In 1776, the town created a “Committee of Correspondence and Safety,” and that committee later voted to raise 40 pounds to provide Charlemont with ammunition.
Rowe
It’s possible that the first person killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill was a Rowe resident. Rowe was known by Myrifield during the time of the American Revolution, and often spelled as Merryfield on enlistment papers, making it difficult to track down who participated in certain battles and whether they were actually residents of modern-day Rowe.
Percy Whiting Brown, an author who wrote “The History of Rowe, Massachusetts” in 1921, surmises that Aaron Barr, a young man from then-Myrifield, was the first man killed during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Barr was a soldier underneath Capt. Hugh Maxwell of Charlemont.
Historians debate whether it was Barr or Billerica resident Asa Pollard who was the first to fall for the Revolutionary cause during this battle. Historical records point to Pollard, however, they also say Barr was first struck by a cannonball early on in the fighting, which necessitated the amputation of his leg. He died from his injuries later that afternoon.
Rowe is also home to a gravestone, marked with the initials W.T. While it’s not confirmed who this grave belongs to, one thought is that it could belong to William Taylor, who was a Revolutionary War leader, one of the first five settlers of the town, a Selectboard member and the first elected state representative.
Taylor served in the Continental Army for eight years and two months, the entire duration of the Revolutionary War. In the immediate aftermath of the war, he returned to his farm in Rowe, was a member of the Congregational Church and helped form Rowe’s library.
Upon his death in 1837, Taylor was lauded by townsfolk as a “patriot of the revolution.”
Buckland
The founder of Buckland was an important man in Franklin County, western Massachusetts and the Continental Army as a whole. At the height of the American Revolution in 1779, Samuel Taylor secured incorporation for Buckland, its land having previously belonged to Charlemont. It was named for the abundant herds of deer so often seen in town.
Taylor was Charlemont’s representation in the Provincial Congress in 1775, and quickly thereafter became connected with Charlemont’s militia. He was commissioned as a captain in the Continental Army in 1776, and had command of a company that was on its way to Saratoga Springs. In 1777, Taylor returned home and was a member of the Charlemont Committee for Safety.
In 1778, after hearing from residents on the outskirts of Charlemont that it was difficult to make the trek down the hill and across the river to attend church services, Taylor began a petition to incorporate Buckland, then known as “No-Town.” On April 14, 1779, the territory that was formerly part of Charlemont and known as No-Town became Buckland.
Shelburne
Shelburne was much like many of the settlements around the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the time leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In 1776, six separate Town Meetings were called, with the most consequential occurring on June 24.
According to the book “History and Tradition of Shelburne, Massachusetts,” written in 1958 by multiple authors, the second article at that meeting asked if the town would stand by the Continental Congress in declaring independence. In voting aye, it was written in records that “this Town will stand by the Honorable Continental Congress with their lives and fortunes if they Honors think it expedient to declare us Independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain for the Safety of our Rights and Privileges.”
Shelburne was struggling during this period. In 1776, only five men from the town enrolled into the Continental Army.
Hawley
In the late 18th century, Hawley was an unincorporated frontier settlement known as Plantation No. 7. However, its name is derived from Joseph Hawley III of Northampton, a prominent politician in western Massachusetts during the time of the American Revolution.
Heath
Like Hawley, the name of the town of Heath has a Revolutionary War connection. The town is named after William Heath, major general of Massachusetts and brigadier general in the national army during the American Revolution. This name came as a suggestion from then-Charlemont and future Heath resident Hugh Maxwell, who served in the Continental Army with Heath and was a close friend.
