| Built in 1750 for the first
minister of Township No. 1, the Reverend Adonijah Bidwell, The Bidwell House is a gracious saltbox home. Rev.
Bidwell arrived in 1750 to be the first minister of this frontier
region, which eventually became the towns of
Monterey
and Tyringham. Bidwell
built an imposing home with six large, paneled rooms, four fireplaces,
two beehive ovens, and three closets. |
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| His
1784
death inventory which is preserved and displayed in the
museum, tells of a well furnished house for the time and location.
He owned a significant collection of
pewter,
three high chests, six beds, numerous chests and tables, a large
library, and an amazing 48 chairs! Perhaps his large furniture
collection came as a result of his numerous wives, three to be
exact, as women often brought furniture as part of their dowry. |
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The high rate of mortality for women meant that more than one
wife was common and indeed this was the case for Rev. Bidwell. Once
the house was completed and he was settled into his
position, Rev. Bidwell married his first wife, Theodosia Colton in 1752.
She was the daughter of his tutor at Yale College, Rev. Benjamin
Colton. Known to be a poet, Theodosia's work is unfortunately lost. To commemorate his marriage to his "college
sweetheart", Rev. Bidwell carved two perfect hearts in the parlor
door, a local tradition found in a number of 18th century houses in
Monterey. |
|
A pair of 18th century chairs |
| Theodosia died childless of an
unknown cause in 1759.One
year later Rev. Bidwell married Theodosia's first cousin, Jemima
Devotion, also the daughter of a prominent Connecticut minister.
Jemima lived for eleven short years as Mrs. Bidwell, having all
of his children, two boys and two girls, before she died. Having young children to raise, Rev. Bidwell lost no time in
marrying his third and final wife, Ruth Kent in 1772. Not all women died young.
Ruth lived to be a healthy 85. The location of the house was the
first town center. The Bidwell House was the parsonage and a meeting
house, located at the crossroads of the Great Trail (the
Boston-Albany Post Road) and Royal Hemlock Road, was a short walk
from the house. |
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____ Royal
Hemlock Road
_____ The Great trail (Old Boston Albany
Post Road)
_____ Bidwell House Property boundary
Red dot Marks the site of the Meeting House |
After Rev. Bidwell's death in 1784, the settlement opted to
build a new meeting house and parsonage a mile south-west of the
original site. The first meeting house fell into disrepair and later
burnt down. The Bidwell
House and property remained in the Bidwell family and was handed down
from father to son to grandson, each generation adding to the
architecture of the house. Rev. Bidwell farmed the property
from 1750 to 1784. His son developed the farm into a large and
prosperous dairy farm, expanding the land holdings and building a
compound of barns and
out-buildings. His tenure was 1784-1836. The
grandson continued to farm and also added a tanning yard |
Above: house in the middle back ground,
cow barns on left, horse barn on right in the early 1900s.
Below, open views over former pasture
land.
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The woodshed & horse
barn in early 1900s |
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However, the development of
western farm lands, the railroad, and the Erie Canal all aided in the
shift of farming to the west and the abandonment of New England farms. In 1853 the house and property was sold out of the family. Consequently, the farming history of The Bidwell House and its
land is a classic example of the rise and fall of farming in Western
Massachusetts. |
| The
museum was formed in 1990 at the bequests of
Jack
Hargis and David Brush. The two men fell in love with and purchased the un-restored house
in 1960, and began a 25 year quest to return it to its original
appearance and to recreate the home of Rev. Bidwell by filling it with
museum quality 18th century furnishings which matched his 1784 death
inventory. |
House pre-restoration,
in the early
1960s, with a screened-in porch. |
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