New Items as of April 16

April 17, 2024

43 "New" items cataloged since early April at the Colrain Historical Society. Most of these are items which were not cataloged prior to now, including several things found in the Pitt bedroom. Click here for the database

# 200-217 many old deeds
The "43" included about 400 old deeds (cataloged as "17" items) , dating from the late 1700s to about 1930. These are original land deeds which came from the Registry of Deeds, then to Town of Colrain, then to CHS. They were removed from two oversized boxes, sorted into 17 small batches by decade, and stored in small storage boxes.

Most of the deeds are mid-to late 1800s. There are a handful of very early deeds, one of them by Jesse Lyon(s), the noted Colrain furniture builder. In 1801 Jesse sold 1/4 of an acre to a Judah Pierce and recorded the deed with his signature and a waxed seal of paper. (Item 202-1).

There is also one 1776 deed for 100 acres to Abraham Pennell, also with a waxed seal

#2531 Levi Lincoln Ledger:
.Another uncataloged "find" was a 7" x 16" account book dating to about 1792. Owner Levi Lincoln had beautiful handwriting. This bill record suggests he may have been a blacksmith...On August 1 he billed for a Cart tire (steel) for 12 shillings, largest item for this customer.

#2532 Nichols Family Reunion book with Civil War Letters.
A small 3 ring binder kept track of family reunions from 1928 to 1940. The oldest attendee in 1928 was Charles W. Nichols who, as an 18 year old, enlisted in the Union Army for the Civil War. The binder has 5 original letters he wrote to his father in the 1860s, and typed transcriptions. See below for typed...

#2533 1983 CHS "business" papers
|An interesting snapshot of how CHS was operating 40 years ago! Includes a form inviting visitors to comment. Here "Barbara" tells us the Dues are too low....

#2539 1986 Colrain Yearbook . Two copies of this were found, so we chopped one apart for scanning. (It is now available online). There are photos and brief biographies of hundreds of Colrain families, with an index in the back.