These rived
planks and the tops of the four corner-poles, that can now be seen and
fingered less than two feet below the surface of the ground, were not
very uniform in thickness, and of course have rotted off at the top by
time and exposure; but enough of both has been preserved till this time
by constant submergence in the water and in the unusually moist soil
above it to betray without any serious question the nature of the
materials used and the mode of their employment. One of the corner-posts
was a black birch and the bark on it is in a good state of preservation
at and below the surface of the water.
The last incident to be mentioned at this time in connection with Fort
Shirley relates to the Rev. John Norton, his wife and daughter. Norton
was born in Berlin, Conn., in 1716; was graduated at Yale College in
1737; was ordained in Fall Town, since Bernardston, Mass., in 1741; he
was the first minister in that town, "but owing to the unsettled state
of the times," and to the fact that his people lay right in the angle
between the military line of the Connecticut and that of the Deerfield,
and had consequently as much as they could do, to maintain their
families exposed as they were, he labored there about four years, and
was appointed chaplain to the line of forts almost as soon as the men
were fairly in garrison.
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