Colrain Archives

d.allen  March 25 Last fall the town Library transferred a large file cabinet filled with historical papers to the Colrain Historical Society.  Nina has scanned one of the dozen or so genealogy binders and we have just prepared them for future use. Below is a clip from one of the 30 genealogies in just that one binder, a small fraction of what is in the file cabinet. I chose Chandler for this example because of the connection to Chandler's Store and old Lyons Tavern atop Chandler Hill. The genealogies appear to be very thorough. We have not yet determined the author, but it may by Hugh McClellan, cousin of Lois McClellan Patrie (author of the History of Colrain). Hugh and Lois both lived on Troy, NY, and Hugh owned the "Motor Car Service Works" , whose recycled stationery was used in several of the genealogies. Special features of the "Patrie" genealogies are brief history vignettes interspersed with some of the family pages. This Chandler mini-history tells us ...

 Wow !  CHS has the original 1874 deed from Alvah Crocker to Joseph Griswold for a small chunk of land that became the Griswold Cotton Mills in Turners Falls 5 years later.  This map is drawn on the deed. Pretty cool to have a original wax seal next to Joseph Griswold's signature.  This deed was scanned by Nina this week as she was cataloging the "Griswoldville Barn Closet" box we found last fall. Joseph Griswold's Colrain factories , 2 of them by now, were subject to flooding. The story is told that among the reasons Griswold wanted a new factory in Turners Falls is that a mill there would be less likely to flood, given the higher land. Below are the signatures of Crocker & Griswold. Alvah Crocker was President of the Turners Falls Company which was developing mostly vacant land into a thriving small city.  Here is a pic of the mill as it was being built in 1877. And a photo of the mill in the 1950s: Older residents of the area will recall the Griswold fact...

rev April 4   Cemetery Locations column   rev April 1       9 "Find-a-Grave" sites added    rev March 31  total of 23  Colrain names (maybe)names (see also Franklin County Blog) "A Muster Roll for a Company of Minute Men under the Command of Capt. Hugh McClellan in Col. Samuel Willliams Reg.t which marched from Colrain & Shelburne April 20 1775"  On April 20 1775, one day after the famous battles of Lexington and Concord, 40 men from Colrain and Shelburne marched to Boston to join the resistance to British rule. With the 250th anniversary of that march fast approaching, it would be a good time to remind us of who these men were and of what they did to help forge the USA. The Massachusetts Archives has a one-page "muster roll" which records the names, length of service, and how much each man was owed for the service. We will add it to Colrain Archives. The names are familiar, McClellan (sp incorrect). Stewart, Pennel, etc....

 This week we photographed Document Box 26 and added the pics to the database Below are a few selections or click on Document Box 26 to see all. #3608-9-10, sandwich bags,  have colonial artifacts from 3 Colrain sites.  #3609 has a notecard "Found at the site of Fort Morris".  Unfortunately neither this notecard or the old "Louise" file card (below) say very much about the "who" and "where"  and context. It nay be that James Johnston was a metal detector enthusiast.  **** Archaelogist Aaron Miller, who managed the dig at nearby Fort Taylor in ca. 2006, was shown this image and wrote ...  "These look exactly like the kinds of materials I would expect to see at the fortified farmsteads. I suspect that you're right and these materials were found by a metal detectorist. Otherwise, I would expect to see a bunch of tobacco pipes and ceramics as well. You probably have a mix of mid 18th-century material and some later 18th- and 19th-century but...

 Pitt Collections Inventory Project We are cataloging the Mt. Pitt's personal collections from the Colrain Historical Society collections, even though all belong to CHS and are stored in the Pitt House. We began to inventory the Pitt items, such as paintings in the bedrooms, in early 2024, followed by a more systematic organizing of other objects and papers, which is ongoing.  Prentice and Nina, with helpo from Ellen, are handling this effort. Each inventoried item is photographed / scanned as we add it to the database.  There are 590 items listed to date. This is in a separate "table" in the CHS Archives database. Gallery Link to Pitt objects Pitt Collections Database - 590 items Each item has a number, based on its found location, such as "at-01"  for attic. Front Hall Items

d. allen  Feb 25, 2025 Colrain Historical Society Database  Links   - Feb 2025 (these links are to "Gallery" views of the Airtable database) 1 :   a few short selection Views:   (these include records without images) |Database "Griswoldville"        (see #666 murder trial (1867) notebook by lawyer) Database "Colrain Inn" *** More Selection Views to be added later... *** 2:   a large selection view: Database - 1575 Records with Images We have more than 2500 items in the database, but only 1575 have pics, so this link only covers records with images.  This will be easier to play with for you the reader. ============================================= Instructions for using the large selection of 1575 records: After you open the database, note the upper left corner- "Filter  and  Sort" Let's try Filter: When you click on Filter, select "Description", and type in "contains"   and then "so...