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In
1735, the country between Westfield and Sheffield, Massachusetts was
unbroken wilderness, settled by Native Americans along the larger rivers. As part of the push westward, the
Provincial Legislature, meeting in Watertown (outside Boston), decreed
that this land should be divided and established into four townships and
given the mere numbers of 1,2,3, and 4. In common with the other
communities of the Housatonic Valley, the early white settlers of this
area followed a pattern of clearing the higher fields and elevated sites
first. The valley bottoms, fertile as they proved later to be, were for
the most part overgrown with thickets and swamps, festering unknown
dangers and disease. This fact, along with the location of the Post
Road, decided the location of Township #1, the original site of
Monterey, on the elevation of the hills to the north of the present town
center.
As
the town developed a meetinghouse was built and Reverend Adonijah
Bidwell was chosen as the first minister. Befitting a man of his
stature, a large saltbox was built as a parsonage located on a parcel of
the best land. The community began to flourish. In 1762 the settlement
took the name of Tyringham and in 1766 the first schoolhouse was built. By the time the Revolution began, the Post Road had become a
well-traveled route between Boston and Albany thus becoming the highway
of the day. Most of the men who could carry a rifle joined up with
Colonel Fellows' Berkshire Regiment and marched off on the Post Road to
Bunker Hill.
After
the Revolution, there came a long period of growth and comparative
prosperity. When Rev. Bidwell passed away, the site of the meetinghouse
was moved and a new church was dedicated on July 4, 1798 at a area
called the Parade Grounds on what is now Beartown Mountain Road. This
caused a rift in the community (those who settled in Hop Brook, in the
Tyringham valley, had to travel further by foot or ox cart or horse back
to Sunday services, therefore they opposed this location change) and a
division of North and South Tyringham developed. Also by this time a
lively settlement had grown up in the valley by the Konkapot River,
called Bangall. As the industrial revolution took hold, most of the
industries of the community were built there.
Inevitably
the people of Hop Brook built their own church that was completed in
1825. Also the shift in population to the Bangall area of became so
great that in 1846 the South Tyringham Meeting Society was formed, a
building committee was formed, and the present church ( in Monterey) was
built, thus reestablishing another center for the community. In 1847,
the time had come to incorporate this town. Bangall was a nickname and
South Tyringham seemed to belong to the old town center on the hill.
Patriotism and excitement over the new expansion of the nation generated
the idea of naming the town in honor of one of the recent victories.
Thus the town was renamed after the battle of Monterey. The Bidwell
House and its property remain as testimony of the early days of the
entire settlement. So it is very fitting that the museum took an
active
part in the celebration of Monterey's anniversary.
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