Caching in Old Deerfield, MA 8/12/2009

Tuesday morning we left and drove to Old Deerfield, MA to do some caching. Along the way we stopped and did 4 caches, the first in the Old Franklin County Visitors Center, and the other 3 were NRV caches in rest stops along RT 2 on the drive into Old Deerfield.
Deerfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located in Western Massachusetts, it includes the village of South Deerfield. The town is home to Historic Deerfield, Deerfield Academy, a private secondary school preparatory school, Frontier Regional High School, Deerfield Elementary and two separate private junior boarding schools, Bement School and Eaglebrook School.
Deerfield was the northwesternmost outpost of New England settlement for several decades during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It occupies a fertile portion of the Connecticut River Valley yet was vulnerable to attack because of its position near the Berkshire Mountains. For these reasons it became the site of several Anglo-Indian skirmishes during its early history.
At the time of the Europeans' arrival, Deerfield was inhabited by the Pocumtuck nation, with a village by the same name. First settled by European colonists in 1673, Deerfield was incorporated in 1677. Settlement was the result of a court case in which the government in Boston agreed to return some of the land of the town of Dedham to native control, and allowed some of Dedham's residents to acquire land in the new township of Pocumtuck. To obtain this land their agent John Plympton signed a treaty with some Pocumtucks, including one named Chaulk—who had no authority to deed over the land, and only a rough idea of what he was signing.
The settlers then expelled by force the Pocumtuck tribe, who sought French protection. At the Battle of Bloody Brook on September, 18, 1675, the dispossessed Indians destroyed a small force under the command of Captain Thomas Lathrop before being driven off by reinforcements. Colonial casualties numbered about sixty. In retaliation, at dawn on May 19, 1676, Captain William Turner led an army of settlers in a surprise attack on Peskeompskut, in present day Montague, then a traditional native gathering place. They killed 200 natives, mostly women and children. When the men of the tribe returned, Turner was routed, and died of a mortal wound at Green River.
On February 29, 1704, during Queen Anne's War, joint French and Indian forces attacked the town in what has become known as the 1704 Raid on Deerfield. Under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville were 47 Canadiens and 200 Abenaki, Kanienkehaka and Wyandot, as well as a few Pocumtuck. They struck at dawn, razing Deerfield and killing 56 colonists including twenty-two men, nine women, and twenty-five children. One hundred and nine survivors including women and children were taken captive and forced on a months-long trek to Quebec. Many died along the way. Some eventually returned to New England, but others remained in French and Native communities such as Wendake, Quebec, for the rest of their lives.
As the frontier moved north, Deerfield became another colonial town with an unquiet early history, later recorded by George Sheldon.[2] In 1753 Greenfield was set off and incorporated. Later, a wave of Eastern European immigration, particularly from Poland, influenced Deerfield's demographics and culture.
During the nineteenth century, Deerfield's role in agricultural production declined. This was, in part, due to development of the Midwestern United States into the nation's breadbasket. During the Colonial Revival movement, Deerfield rediscovered its past to attract tourism. The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association was founded in 1870, and monuments were erected to commemorate various conflicts with indigenous peoples, including the Bloody Brook and 1704 attacks. In 1890, Charlotte Alice Baker returned to Deerfield to restore her family home, the Frary House.[4] Assisted by the Boston architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, her effort was one of the first attempts at historic preservation of an old building in western Massachusetts. Today, tourism remains the town's principal industry, with Historic Deerfield and the Yankee Candle Company.
Once we got into Old Deerfield we did our 6 caches and then took a tour of the town looking at the old homes, schools, churches and stores. Our first cache was Wig Wam located in the back of the Indian Memorial House which is home to hands-on exhibits for children. They can experience history through planned activities while learning about Native Americans, textiles, toys and games, herbs and gardens, and "Women's Work".
Next cache was at the Liberty Pole. History recounts the 18th century Liberty Poles erected in many towns in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War. A pole was brought to Deerfield on July 28, 1774, with the intent of erecting it the following day, but the pole was sawn in half during the night. Another pole replaced it and was hoisted without incident.
Next cache was in the Old Deerfield Burying Ground. We found the cache and then walked through the burying ground reading all the epitaphs on some of the headstones. We found hearstones dating back to 1696, at least the ones we could read. Some of the epitaphs were very interesting as follows:In memory of Oliver & Simeon Amsden who dies Aug. 25, 1746. Oliver aged 18 and Simeon aged 9 sons of John and Mary. Killed in bar fights. One woman died when her home was consumed by flames and make sure you read some of the others especially the one where the wife was captured in 1703/4 and was carried off to Quebec and never returned. There were many many old headstones to numerous to mention dated back through the 1700's.
Next was a cache on the river behind Deerfield Academy. Deerfield was never affiliated with a religion, but attendance at Congregationalist Church services was required of boarding students until the 1970s and school meetings included the singing of Christian hymns. Deerfield Academy was founded in 1797 when Massachusetts Governor Samuel Adams granted a charter to found a school in the town of Deerfield. The academy quickly established itself as one of the finest schools in the new republic, drawing boys from prominent families across New England. The school was co-ed since its inception. The school produced influential men that occupied many congressional and gubernatorial seats in New England. By the end of the 19th century, the shifting trends in industrialization had left rural Deerfield behind. The economic hardships of the times impoverished local farmers and drove them away to the wealthy cities. The board of trustees was considering closing the Academy, as there only remained nine students. These were the school's darkest times. With little support from local farmers and a dire economic situation, the 100-year old school was on the brink of collapse.
In the early twentieth century, Deerfield's fortunes rose with the appointment of Frank Boyden as Headmaster. He quickly re-organized the school and provided it with a sound financial basis. He recruited students actively from local farms and towns, promising the parents that their boys would be successful. Boyden had great confidence in the value of athletics as a component of education. He often played on the varsity squads when there was a lack of players. He attracted and trained many teachers that would become masters and keep long loyalties to the academy. The prestige enjoyed by the school today is a direct result of the foundations he laid over seven decades, including training scores of men as teachers and headmasters in their own right. His success would not have been possible without the support and assistance of his wife, Helen Childs Boyden. After 66 years of service, Frank Boyden retired in 1968. Boyden's long career and legacy at Deerfield are reviewed in The Headmaster, (1966) by Deerfield alumnus John McPhee.
In 1989, the Academy reestablished co-education, which Boyden had discontinued in 1943.
Eric Widmer '57 served as headmaster from 1994 to 2006. He stepped down in June 2006 and soon after assumed the position of Founding Headmaster at King's Academy in Madaba, Jordan, a school inspired in part by HM King Abdullah II 1980's Deerfield years. It opened in the fall of 2007.
The current Head of School, Dr. Margarita O'Byrne Curtis, previously Dean of Studies at Phillips Academy, is the first female to hold the position.
Next cache was in front of the Dwight House on a historic marker about Old Deerfield and a monument regarding Captain Jonathan Wells. Built ca. 1754 in Springfield, Massachusetts, the Dwight House was moved to Deerfield in 1950 when it was threatened with demolition. The museum’s founders, Henry and Helen Flynt, had the house dismantled and brought 35 miles north to Deerfield where it became one of only four houses along The Street that were not here originally. The restored house’s fashionable window, door, and dormer pediments, and striking color scheme have made it a favorite of photographers and visitors alike. Capt Wells was the boy hero of the CT Valley and commanded the Meadow Fight in 1704 after the Raid on Deerfield.
The Raid on Deerfield occurred during Queen Anne's War on February 29, 1704, when joint French and Native American forces under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville attacked the English settlement at Deerfield, Massachusetts just before dawn, razing the town and killing fifty-six colonists. De Rouville's forces consisted of forty-seven French and French Canadian soldiers and 200 Native Americans, mostly Abenaki, Kanienkehaka and Wyandot, accompanied by a few Pocumtuck. Of the colonists killed, twenty-two were men, nine were women, and twenty-five were children. The novel The Ransom of Mercy Carter gives a very good and detailed story of Mercy Carter's journey.
A total of 109 residents, including children who had survived the attack, were taken captive and forced on a months-long, 300-mile trek to Quebec in harsh winter conditions; twenty-one of them died along the way. More than sixty of those who reached Quebec were eventually ransomed or otherwise managed to make their way back to New England, but a number of others, including Eunice Williams, the young daughter of Deerfield's pastor, chose to remain in French and Native communities, such as Wendake, for the rest of their lives.
Our last cache in Old Deerfield was behind the Flynt Center of Early New England Life which displays more than 25,000 objects made or used in America between 1650 and 1850. Then it was off to see the rest of the town which we didn't see.
Allen House Built in 1734, and renovated in 1945, the Allen House served as the residence of Historic Deerfield’s founders, Henry and Helen Flynt. They purchased numerous houses along The Street between 1942 and 1962. The interiors of this house have been left as they were when the Flynts lived here with their outstanding collections of American antiques.

Ashley House Built in 1734, the Ashley House served as the home of Deerfield’s 18th-century minister with furnishings of the Connecticut River elite and English ceramics. It is an example of Deerfield’s first 18th-century building boom. In the 1730s, successful Deerfield farmers enlarged old dwellings and built new ones often with stylish doorways in a distinctive Connecticut Valley style. In the 1750s, the Reverend Jonathan Ashley made substantial alterations to his house, such as a grand doorway, a central hallway staircase, and fine paneling. Inside the house visitors see furnishings owned by the Connecticut Valley’s “River Gods,” the political-military-mercantile-ministerial elite that governed the towns of western Massachusetts until the American Revolution. Ashley bought cherry and mahogany furniture for his parlors and chambers, imported English and Chinese ceramics for tea and punch, prints that demonstrated his English allegiance, and textiles that gave comfort and color to domestic life. The Ashley House was the first restoration opened to the public by the founders of Historic Deerfield, Henry and Helen Geier Flynt, in 1948.

Barnard Tavern Built in 1795, the Barnard Tavern was at the center of village life at the end of the 18th century. In the early 19th century, roads and canals improved transportation and communication between towns in the new nation. The tavern formed a center of village life, a point at which the people of Deerfield met the outside world, in the person of a stagecoach driver, itinerant artisan, or drover. Barnard Tavern, a 1795 addition to the Frary House, provided accommodations for visitors and served as a meeting place for local residents. Townspeople and travelers exchanged news and opinions, conducted business, read mail and newspapers, and posted broadsides. Meals were prepared in the kitchen, drinks served in the bar room, and dances, plays, court sessions, meetings, and auctions were held in the upstairs assembly room. The assembly room was also the site of the first meeting of the trustees of Deerfield Academy.

Bement School which began in 1925 when Grace "Menty" Bement agreed to a request of Headmaster Frank Boyden of Deerfield Academy that she tutor one of his students. The school grew as word spread. Menty's emphasis was on the individual child-a revolutionary approach in those days. But the rights of the individual included a strong emphasis on the responsibility for the rights of others. The campus began to expand outward from Bement House. "The Barn" was renovated first to be a place for social gatherings and later to house drama and the arts. A stable was converted into Keith Schoolhouse. In 1930 the school acquired Barton House to establish a boarding department. Snively House, the site of today's alumni/ae and development office, was moved from the town of Dana when it was flooded to form the Quabbin Reservoir. Menty retired from the school at age 67. In 1947 Katharine "Kay" Bartlett and Mary "Gug" Drexler bought the school from Menty and incorporated it a few years later. During the next two decades Kay and Gug continued to build upon Menty's philosophies. They bought Wright House at the north end of town and acquired Stebbins House, which, along with Wright House, would become dormitories for older boarders. In 1967 they initiated a fund drive that led to the construction of the Polk Building. Kay and Gug retired in 1971 and were followed by Charles Hamilton, John Butler in 1974, and Peter Drake, in 1985. A capital campaign funded the construction in 1991 of the new Drake Building for grades 2-5. A fine arts wing, completed in the fall of 1992, expanded the Barn for theatre and physical education, along with adding art and music rooms. Our current Head, Shelley Jackson, came to Bement in 1999. A capital campaign, launched the same year, provided a new upper school facility, the Kittredge Building, complete with eleven classrooms, two science labs, school meeting space, and locker rooms. In the same campaign, the Polk Building was renovated to provide the school with its first all-school library, named in honor of the Clagett/McLennan families. The Polk Building now features the Haas and Flynt Computer Rooms, a multi-purpose dance studio, and a reading room dedicated to Grace Bement's love of literature. Bement's curriculum has remained responsive and fluid, and faculty continue to demonstrate unflagging devotion to their students. Bement currently maintains an enrollment of approximately 240 students, including 32 boarders, who come from many different states and countries.

Deerfield Inn: When the Deerfield Inn was opened in July 1884 by two brothers whose earlier inn on the village common had been destroyed by fire, a plague of grasshoppers was devouring its way across a drought-stricken Franklin County! Not surprisingly there is nothing written about the actual opening date, but in the Gazette and Courier, July 14, 1884 a reporter noted that "Mr. J.M. Bradley has a good business at the new hotel." A week later the papers reported that the grasshoppers continued to devour all crops and that ravaged farmers were slaughtering their cattle for lack of water. The inn's summer visitors apparently stayed on, despite the heat and the voracious grasshoppers. On September 1, 1884 a Deerfield reporter writes that, "the summer boarders are folding their tents and stealing away, browner and better for their stay." During the first 15 years of its operation, guests arrived by stagecoach, carriages, and on horseback. Later a trolley line ran through the village, stopping right in front of the inn as an old photograph hanging in the inn shows, and by the turn of the century automobiles began to appear. Within a year the inn was enlarged by George Arms, a local builder, and a brochure from 1885 describes the Deerfield Inn as "in all appointments far ahead of the average country hotel." The locusts had long gone, but the guests stayed on and kept coming for - as a brochure from the 1920s promises - "the atmosphere and charm of early days, with modern comfort and convenience." Breakfast started at 30¢, dinner could be had for $1.00, and a double room with running water was priced at $3.00.

Frary House was built circa 1750, the Frary House depicts the Colonial Revival home of Miss C. Alice Baker, as restored in the 1890s with New England antiques, Arts and Crafts needlework, ironware and basketry. Baker was a teacher, collector, and antiquarian researcher, who restored the Frary House in 1892. Today Miss Baker’s home interprets the village’s active Arts and Crafts movement, her antiquarian pursuits, and her role in fostering the Colonial Revival in Deerfield. Education, tourism, and the sale of arts and crafts served as an economic bridge to 20th-century Deerfield. Visitors came by rail, and later by trolley and automobile, to tour Memorial Hall Museum, shop for arts and crafts in the homes and studios of their makers, and enjoy the romance of a frontier village that had aged so gracefully. Tourists generated employment for members of the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, craftsmen in the Society of Deerfield Industries, and in the hotels, boarding houses, and tearooms that accommodated visitors searching for a tranquil past in an increasingly industrialized nation.

Hall Tavern Visitor's Center: The first stop for visitors to Historic Deerfield, the Hall Tavern Visitor Center was originally built in 1760 in Charlemont, Massachusetts (about 20 miles west of Deerfield), and a ballroom wing was added around 1800. Today Museum Attendants welcome visitors with information about tickets, membership, the day’s activities, and an orientation film. The Hall Tavern is also an active museum, and is home to open hearth cooking demonstrations and classes, offered seasonally. While here, be sure to visit the Cooks’ Garden located behind Hall Tavern.

Henry Needham Flynt Silver and Metalware Collection: Built circa 1814, the house containing the Henry Needham Flynt Silver and Metalware Collection reflects Historic Deerfield founder Henry Flynt’s interest in early American silver. The core collection of 92 pieces of American silver purchased in England by the Flynts in 1954 has grown to more than 4,000 pieces of American and English silver in a variety of forms. The communion silver of the First Church of Deerfield, the First Churches of Northampton, and the First Church of Sunderland, Massachusetts, are also on display. The building features a silversmith’s workshop with many traditional tools, and a room devoted to pewter and other metalwares made and used in early America.

Williams House: Originally constructed in 1730, the Hinsdale and Anna Williams House was extensively renovated to its present appearance in 1816. Ebenezer Hinsdale Williams, a landowner and farmer, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, educated at Harvard College, and later moved to Deerfield, his mother’s native village. Williams, his wife Anna, and their two teenage children lived in a splendid Federal-style house until his death in 1838. French scenic wallpaper depicting Venetian scenes survives from the Williamses’ time, and other wallpapers have been reproduced from original evidence in the house. Furnishings listed in the probate inventory of Hinsdale Williams include a cooking stove, a washing machine, and 16 “flagg-bottomed” chairs.

The Old Bloody Brook Tavern built prior to 1700 and moved to Deerfield from South Deerfield. It is a long one and a half story frame building with a giant central chimney, now the home of the Deerfield Art School.

Sheldon House: Built in 1754/7, the Sheldon House has an 1802 single-story ell or addition to the rear. The house is interpreted to the period of 1780 to 1810, when the house was occupied by three generations of Sheldon family members. The expansion of the house in 1802 was probably done with the expectation that several Sheldon children would marry and increase the household. The Sheldons were farmers whose livelihood included fattening cattle penned in stalls on provender (corn, peas, and oats) and hay. In the early spring drovers took the fattened cattle to Brighton (near Boston) for slaughter.

Stebbins House: Built in 1799, the Asa Stebbins House features Federal period architecture, wall treatments, and decorative arts. It was the first brick house in Deerfield, and the interior of the house features neoclassical furnishings dating from 1790 to 1830. Inspired by ancient Greek and Roman design, this style was popular in the years following the American Revolution. One of Deerfield’s wealthiest and most highly respected citizens, Stebbins’ selection of brick construction and linear neoclassical design was a stylish departure from earlier Deerfield houses with their wooden clapboards and bold pedimented doorways. Of special note are French scenic wallpaper panels by Joseph Dufour depicting the voyages of Captain Cook, freehand wall painting that may have been executed by itinerant artist Jared Jessup in 1812, and several portraits by Erastus Salisbury Field of nearby Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Some of the other history we saw was the Wilson Printing Office, White Church, Town Office c1835, The First Church of Deerfield, Memorial Hall Museum, J.G. Pratt Store and Museum, J.W. Potter House c1866, Godfrey Nims Monument, Deerfield Post Office, Benjamin Barrett Carpenter Monument, and many many older homes.

Our last cache on the way back to the RV was at the Laurel Hill Cemetery and was a multi-cache which we found fairly quickly among the hordes of mosquitoes and we mean hordes and hordes and more hordes. Never have seen mosquitoes as bad as they were here in this area. Then it was back to the coach and lunch and dinner and a little TV for the rest of the evening. Well until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad