From June, 1725 till the end of May,
1754, one man in each constituted the garrison of Shirley and Pelham.
Archibald Powell held watch and ward on the heights of Heath and George
Hall on the lofty meadow in Rowe. Each drew his pay from the treasury of
the colony; and each had a magnificent lookout from his solitary
sentry-box. Monadnock is in plain sight to the east, and Haystack to the
north from the site of Fort Shirley and the Hoosacs to the west and
Greylock overtopping them greeted the roving gaze of George Hall from
the picketed enclosure of Fort Pelham.
There was but one chaplain to the line of forts, Rev. John Norton,
appointed from Falltown in 1745, who passed from one to the other as his
sense of duty to each garrison might prompt; and Mrs. Norton with one
or two children lived in Fort Shirley for more than a year while her
husband was in captivity in Canada. Scouting parties of the soldiers
were kept constantly passing from fort to fort when not employed in
garrison or other duty; their allowance on the march was for each
soldier per day one pound of bread, one pound of pork, and one gill of
rum; while in garrison each man was allowed per day one pound of bread,
and one-half pint of peas or beans, two pounds of pork for three days,
and one gallon of molasses for 42 days.
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