West Stockbridge and The Gore

Jabez’s son, Jeremiah, and his grandson, Jabez, along with others of his family, removed from Ware sometimes about the time of Jabez’s death, first probably to West Stockbridge, and later removed even further west in Massachusetts, to the disputed land called The Gore. In the last issue, we printed excerpts of the deeds and land records by which Jeremiah obtained these lands. Here we print excerpts from “West Stockbridge, Massachusetts 1774-1974", by Garnett, which provide some of the background of the settlement of the area. We are indebted to Doreen Dolleman for presenting us with this material, as well as the plat of Alfred that follows on the next page.

WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS OPENED TO SETTLERS

West Stockbridge had its earliest beginning long before its incorporation in 1774. The groundwork was laid fifty years earlier with the opening up of Western Massachusetts in 1722. That winter on January 30th, one hundred and seventy-six inhabitants of Hampshire County, Massachusetts petitioned the General Court of Mass. Bay Colony for two townships in the valley of the Housatonic. The petitioners were granted the two townships, each seven miles square. This land, located on the Housatonic river became known as "Upper and Lower Housatonic” townships. Two months later, fifty-five settlers received grants and proceeded to purchase the land of the Indians.

This Indian land purchase was necessary because in Western Massachusetts, as in all of New England, the English Crown made these land grants with total disregard for the land rights and needs of the native Indians. To the Crown, discovery meant the right to possess. They did not concern themselves with the manner of acquisition. Consequently, each colony developed its own rules and regulations to govern the securing of Indian land titles.......

These two Housatonic townships were governed by the advice of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: "If any of the savages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands granted in our patent, we pray you endeavor to purchase their title, that we may avoid the least scrupple of intrusion.” However, the colony recognized as Indian land only that under cultivation. This was quite limited, as the Indian farmed to eat, rather than to sell his produce.

Negotiations with these families was begun, resulting in a deed extinguishing Indian title to these lands on April 25th, 1724, signed by Chief Konkapot and twenty other Indians. Jehoiakim Van Valkenburgh assisted in this transaction, as an interpreter of Chief Konkapot. He was one of several Dutch traders in the area who were there without documentary right.

The area bought covered the present (1973) towns of Sheffield, Egremont, Mount Washington, Great Barrington, Alfred, part of Lee, and the southern parts of both Stockbridge and West Stockbridge......

The English settlers paid the Indians 460 pounds, three barrels of cider, and thirty quarts of rum for these lands. This was said to be the largest sum ever paid to the Indians for their lands!.....

The Gore

Simultaneously with the settling of the English in Western Massachusetts, another problem was developing. The land to the west was also being settled. The New York Colony had made a grant to certain Dutchmen of New York for the same lands that the Massachusetts Bay Colony granted to the English, known as the "Patent of Westenhook", (the N.Y. Colony’s name for the Housatonic River). The petition for the patent was dated July 11, 1705 with its claim based upon deeds given by Indians in 1685, 1703 and 1704. The Dutch claimed the territory as far east as the Housatonic River.

The New York Colony had originally claimed territory as far east as the Connecticut River but as she failed to push her settlements east of the Taconic Range of mountains she lost any claim that far east.

The Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, on the other hand, claimed all land westward to the Pacific Ocean. While the attainment of this was quite impossible, the fact that the Massachusetts settlers had already settled in Sheffield, Great Barrington and Stockbridge, made it seem quite possible that more townships could be laid out still further west, and the state line established at a point 12 miles east of the Hudson River. However, the land between the Housatonic and the Hudson Rivers was in dispute for nearly a hundred years. The Massachusetts Governor forbade any further settlement in this uncertain territory called "The Gore”......

The earliest recorded deed for West Stockbridge land, settled upon by whites, was for a certain tract of land lying between the west boundary of Stockbridge (now West Stockbridge and the east line of a township called Spencertown (now Austerlitz). This land was located in "The Gore”, the uncertain land between Massachusetts and the New York Colony.

The deed was given by two Indian claimers and owners, John Pophnehonnukwok and Jehoiakim Yokum of Stockbridge to "several persons having entered on said tract of land and made improvements and got into possession of part of the premises, and several other persons are desirous to make improvements thereon, viz. Jeremiah Omstead, Joseph Fleming, Jabez Omstead, William Virgin, John Saxton, John Burgat which have already made settlements, and Jonah Westover, Abraham Andrus, Joseph Hunt, Peter Ingersoll and John Mills of Ghent”. The land was described as "bounding South on the land called the Shauwaunan Purchase in part, and partly on land purchased by David Ingersoll and to extend as far as the township of Stockbridge.” The deed goes on to demand that the above‑named persons "settled and settling on said tract of land either forbear and remove or make satisfaction.” They made satisfaction by payment of 60 pounds, New York Currency......

Early Settlers In The Gore And State Line

Until the early part of the 18th century, Queensboro (now West Stockbridge) remained a wilderness occupied only by Indians and a few Dutch traders. The only access to this area was on trails or paths through formidable mountain wilderness created by Indian runners when bringing furs to the fur traders at Albany or Hudson......

The first white settler in West Stockbridge was John George Easland. .....

All indications point to this John George Easland as being the same person as one Islein, found on the Proprietors’ Map next to the property of the Omsteads (or Almsteads) in the Gore. This is where the Silver Birch Camp (now Kingsmont) was later located and before that the family of Easland. The spelling of the name Islein as it appears on the Proprietors’ Map also appears in a deed of 1766 of Jedidiah Omstead of John G. Jaquins in describing his land in the Gore......

John Easland (Islein) was soon joined by many other settlers. Proprietors' meetings were held, consisting of both Indians and white settlers, in which all voted together, and granted surveyed land tracts......

The entire town was surveyed with the exception of the Gore as much land there was already settled or in dispute. .......