Buckland Massachusetts – The Early Years
In 1630, John Winthrop led over one thousand Puritans from England to Boston to form the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the New World. This voyage, and the careful pre-planning that went into it, resulted in nearly twenty thousand Puritan colonists coming to Massachusetts over the next ten years. With such an influx of people in such a short time, and with the earlier Plymouth Plantations having been in existence for a decade already, it’s not surprising that the settlers began moving inland to the west. Settlements were established along the Connecticut River in today’s western Massachusetts towns of Springfield and West Springfield as early as 1635. Over the next century, travel up the Connecticut river to the Deerfield River and her tributaries led the colonists to settle in the area known today as West County – the western Franklin County towns of Conway, Ashfield, Shelburne, Charlemont, Colrain, Heath, Rowe and Buckland.
Incorporated in 1779 as Buckland, for many years the town was known as “No Town.” Much of the town land was deeded in 1735 to the Massachusetts Bay Colony by members of the Pocumtuck Tribe of Native Americans. The Colony named the area Boston Township No. 1. It was territory that included “No Town” which was at that time part of the towns of Charlemont and Ashfield as well as land held by several individual grants. Rather than being named for a town or person from the Old World, the name Buckland comes from the New World land itself. One of the early settlers of the town, Samuel Taylor, is said to have built what was called a “Deer-Park”. He erected a fence on land near the river that the plentiful deer could enter but not exit. This provided him captive venison – he would shoot the bucks and release the does (who would bring back more bucks on another day). Legend has it that one morning Mr. Taylor entered his park and shot five bucks, his feet not moving an inch. This resulted in the town name: Buck-Land.
Buckland was far removed from the “city life” of the merchant towns and trading villages of the Atlantic coast, it being over one hundred twenty miles inland from Boston. New Amsterdam, now New York City, was more than six days journey – a distance we travel today in about three hours. Publications indicate that the colonists came to the area after hearing from the Native Americans of the “rich fertile soil” in the west. Unlike the flat valley land found in Springfield and Deerfield, Buckland and the surrounding area has steep terrain and the soil, while it may be rich, has abundant rocks in every shovel full. Still, the early settlers were determined to make a life in this wilderness. They made their way west from the towns of Massachusetts towns of Marlborough, Uxbridge, Upton, Lancaster, Leominster, Ipswich, New Braintree and Woburn to name just a few. And they came north from Litchfield, New Fairfield, Milford and other places in Connecticut.
Land was “granted”, or handed out, by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There were stipulations that required that specific “improvements” were to be made to the land. Requirements included the number of settlers per area; the amount of land for household lots, public common space, church and school; the size of the houses and the amount of land that must be cleared. Land would be given to individuals or groups in reward or recognition of their (or a family member’s) service in the military as well as to reimburse folks for what might have been destroyed or lost as a result of conflict with the Native Americans. Individuals were also appropriated acreage for losses as a result of the constant shifting of boundary lines of towns and individual grant holdings.
A saw mill, one of the first businesses in Buckland, was operational as early as 1769. A grist mill followed so that the colonists could grind their corn. The Deerfield River and Clessons River provided water for drinking and power for the mills but these waterways also created hazardous travel conditions. The swollen river banks and the steep grade in many areas made it extremely difficult for the Buckland settlers to attend school, church, and town meetings located across the Deerfield River in what is today Charlemont. This physical separation is one of the conditions that eventually led to the incorporation of Buckland as its own entity.
The early settlers built their homes of logs which they cut from the land. Historical records state that framed houses were rare prior to 1800. Timber was abundant and was used for shelter and heat. It would seem that in the early years of Buckland barns were more of a necessity than houses. The 1785 town “valuation” shows a considerable amount of live stock - five hundred ten animals - barns out numbered dwellings seventeen to thirteen. The 1790 United States Census reports an increase of 951% (nine hundred and fifty one percent) in the number of dwellings. In just five short years, one hundred and twenty four families had decided that Buckland was a fine place to make a home in the New World; the population was reported as one hundred twenty four families totaling seven hundred and eighteen people.
With the new residents came the need for businesses and services. In addition to the saw and grist mills, other industries began. There were blacksmiths; carpenters; broom stick and broom head makers; sash, door and blind shops; whip makers; braided palm leaf makers; granite quarries; peg shops; casket makers; cabinet makers; various agricultural endeavors like flax and apples; barrel and tool shops. It is said that the “Upper City”, known today as Buckland Center or Upper Buckland, had over thirty businesses in existence at the same time in the early years. Today, a drive through Buckland Center takes less than one minute and the only “businesses” you will find are the Library, Post Office, Congregational Church, the Historical Museum (once a school) and two cemeteries. There are old colonial homes on both sides of the quiet street but there is little evidence of the bustling center of the early years.
One Buckland business that is still around is Lamson & Goodnow Manufacturing Company. This cutlery factory, located in the Shelburne Falls section of town near the Deerfield River, has been in Buckland since 1850. In 1869 a set of cutlery made here was presented to then President Ulysses S. Grant. The set was on display in a Broadway window in New York City where the Times wrote a descriptive article regarding “its fine workmanship and elegance.” The handles were made of pearl and ivory carved like maple leaves and on each blade there was an engraved spread eagle. The blades were joined to the handles in bands of heavy gold. The wooden case that held the knives was made of butternut and bird’s eye maple, woods native to America. More than one hundred and fifty years has passed since Ebenezer and Nathaniel Lamson started this business. Today the factory continues to produce excellent quality cutlery and does an international business in a variety of cook and gift ware.
Perhaps one of the best known people to have come from the early years of Buckland is Mary Lyon, founder of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley Massachusetts. Born on a farm in 1797, Mary grew up in Buckland and the neighboring town of Ashfield. She became a teacher and opened a school in the “Upper City” section of Buckland. She was a member of the First Congregational Church being baptized there in 1822. The church is commonly known today as the Mary Lyon Church. Her birthplace in East Buckland is preserved and maintained by Mount Holyoke College as a park like setting at the end of a dirt road with the original cellar hole and a bronze tablet showing the layout of the original house. The U. S. Postal Service honored Mary with a stamp of her picture and multiple books and articles have been written about her life, faith, and pioneer spirit to educate women in a time when education was not what society expected women to pursue.
Learn more about the early years of Buckland and the surrounding area from history and genealogy books available at the Buckland Library. You’ll find Ashfield, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Hawley, Heath, as well as Deerfield, Hadley, and Springfield. There are also regional works covering several New England locations, Western Massachusetts and Franklin County.
Compiled by Tina Peters in 2009
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