John Stoddard of Northampton was then Colonel of the militia
of Hampshire, a designation at that time including all of Massachusetts
west of the Connecticut River; he was Shirley's right-hand man for this
end of the Province, and it was under his general direction that Forts
Shirley and Pelham and Massachusetts were erected.
The letter is still extant in Stoddard's own hand, dated July 20, 1744,
in which Capt. William Williams is ordered by him "to erect as soon as
may be" a block-house sixty feet square "about five miles and a half
from Hugh Morrison's house in Colrain in or near the line run last week
under the direction of Col. Timo. Dwight by our order." In the same
letter, Williams is directed to employ soldiers in the construction of
the fort, carpenters to be allowed "nine shillings, others six shillings
a day old Tenor." Several other directions are given, and the main
outlines of the fort are prescribed; some bills are still extant giving
items of money paid out for many different parts of the work; six of the
original hewn timbers of the building are in good preservation today in
the barn of Orsamus Maxwell in Heath, each stick telling some tale of
the original mode of construction; so that, from all these sources of
information, a pretty accurate idea of the old fort can be made out
to-day, 141 years after it was built.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90