The 2022 town meeting season rapidly approaches, and townspeople can anticipate an agenda of budgetary and policy matters to discuss and vote on. I recently inspected a 259-year-old, shingle-sheet document signed by some of the earliest white male residents of the still-getting-its-feet-wet Town of Great Barrington.
Dated Nov. 29, 1763, it is a petition, archived at Great Barrington Town Hall, asking the selectmen to “consider of and act on the following articles: First to choose a moderator; Secondly to see if the Town will chose a Committee to Search the Records in the Sheffield Book of Records Pertaining to the Highways in This Town and to ascertain Their width and Bounds and to make report to this Town for confirmation; Thirdly to See if the Town will Set apart Some Proper place to be used as a place for Military exercises; Fourthly to see what the town will Grant to the reverend Mr. Saml Hopkins for his Service in preaching the Gospel among us the current year.” That last item relates to an ongoing controversy over the Congregational pastor.
Signing the document were Israel Dewey, Samuel Lee, David Ingersoll, John Burghardt, Aaron Sheldon, Warham Lee, Eli Hobel, Saml Breck, Josiah Phelps, Benedict Dewey, and John Church. Several of those names are still to be found in South Berkshire.
At the first town meeting two years earlier, on July 22, 1761, Mark Hopkins had been elected town clerk; Joseph Dwight, Timothy Hopkins, and John Burghardt were selectmen and assessors; and Timothy Hopkins opened the books as town treasurer. Two and a half centuries ago, they were rigorous pioneers in creating a new town government.
The second Great Barrington town meeting was held August 22, 1761, according to historian Charles J. Taylor. Eligible white male citizens assembled at the Congregational meeting house next to the Water Street Cemetery. At another meeting, on November 16, a budget was approved. In March 1762, funds were provided for road work. In April 1762, construction of a school house was approved.
Voters were new to all this, so progress was piecemeal. The town finally got around to rebuilding the wooden Great Bridge over the Housatonic River in 1766 — slow action on bridges is nothing new.
Berkshire County had come into existence in 1761, along with Hampden and Franklin counties carved out of Hampshire County. That same year, Great Barrington was separated from Sheffield and named shire town. Until then, it was Sheffield’s Upper Parish. (Sheffield was incorporated in 1733.) Gov. Sir Francis Bernard appointed as justices of the Berkshire County Inferior Court of Common Pleas Joseph Dwight, William Williams, John Ashley, and Timothy Woodbridge. They served as a de facto county commission. Only two of them were lawyers. Elijah Dwight was named registrar of probate and Elijah Williams was sworn in as county sheriff.
Great Barrington’s physical boundaries were adjusted slightly over the years, beginning with annexation of adjacent land in 1773. Land was shaved off Great Barrington in 1773, 1779, and 1819 to create and enlarge the Town of Alford. The same was done in 1777 to expand the Town of Lee slightly. Decades passed before another boundary changed. With approval of town voters, the General Court in 1958 shifted 1.75 acres from Stockbridge to Great Barrington so the Corpus Christi rectory would be in Housatonic village and its politically active pastor, the Rev. Thomas S. Hanrahan, could legally vote in town matters.
By 1880 — a year selected at random — Great Barrington held a single, annual meeting. The 16-article warrant that March included the usual budgetary matters ($4,700 for schools, $4,000 for support of the poor) plus a request from Sheriff Norton “to recover a reward offered for the discovery of the person who fired J.C. Munson’s barn” (referred to the selectmen for resolution). Voters were asked to establish a board of health (passed over), and they were asked to approve a change in the road west of Van Deusenville.” This road, aka Division Street west of North Plain Road, passing through the John C. Munson place (today Foggy River Farm), was shifted southerly “to avoid a bad hill”; you can see the old roadway in the pasture.
What matters will appear on this year’s warrant?
