U.S. Presidents

Hometown Hoedown – The Heart of the Berkshires

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Welcome to my hometown! But to be perfectly honest with you, I haven’t lived there for more than fifty years…and I’ve never really given much thought to the history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts until the Fillies suggested doing a blog about our hometown towns.

So, here goes…

Pittsfield, Massachusetts, located in western Massachusetts, is a city rich in history and culture. Situated in Berkshire County, it encompasses a unique blend of natural beauty, significant landmarks, and a vibrant community.

The city can trace its roots back to the colonial era when it was first settled in 1752. The city was named after British Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder. Initially, Pittsfield relied on agriculture, with crops like corn, oats, and wheat being important for the settlers. However, during the 19th century, the city experienced rapid industrial growth, transitioning from an agrarian society into a thriving manufacturing hub.

By the end of the Revolutionary War, Pittsfield had nearly 2,000 residents. While mainly a farming area, because of the many brooks that flowed into the Housatonic River, the land was dotted with mills that produced lumber, grain, paper (Eaton & Crane writing paper was known worldwide), and textiles. When Merino sheep from Spain was introduced in 1807, the area became the center of woolen manufacturing in the U.S. for nearly a century.

By the late 1800s, the town was a bustling metropolis. In 1891, the City of Pittsfield was incorporated. In that same yar, William Stanley Jr., who had recently relocated his Electric Manufacturing Company to Pittsfield produced the first electric transformer. Stanley’s enterprise was the forerunner of the internationally known corporate giant, General Electric (GE). Thanks to the success of GE, Pittsfield’s population in 1930 had grown to more than 50,000. Though it continued to be one of the city’s largest employers until the 1980s, a workforce that once topped 13,000 was reduced to less than 700 with the demise of General Electric. On a personal note, I worked at GE after college for two years, made some great friends, and learned how a big conglomerate operated…which made me turn to public education for the remainder of my working career!

Weather in Pittsfield has four distinct seasons…however, winter often begin around Columbus Day in mid-October and can last to Mother’s Day in May. Spring is nearly non-existent, and summers can be cool & rainy or hot…however, nothing compares to the Berkshires in Autumn. It is glorious!!!

       

Pittsfield and Berkshire County is less than three hours from New York City to the south, and Boston to the east, making the area home to a myriad of world-class art, theater, dance, music, film, and historic sites. The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts in North Adams and Tanglewood in Lenox and Stockbridge have long drawn the culturally inclined to Western Massachusetts. Berkshire Theatre Group in Pittsfield and venues like the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge also draw tourists from around the world.

       

Pittsfield can lay claim to a number of famous residents who have made significant contributions to our nation’s history, including Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, written at his Pittsfield home he called Arrowhead. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., lived in Pittsfield for 7 years. His poetry put him in the company of other writers living in the area in the mid 1800’s. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet, educator, linguist, owned a home which is now the site of Pittsfield High School.

Other notables include

  • Robin Williams, actor, maintained a summer home in Pittsfield
  • Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric
  • Brian Piccolo, Chicago Bears halfback, subject of movie Brian’s Song
  • Marshall Field, founded Chicago’s Marshall Field’s department stores, took first job in 1853 as a clerk in Pittsfield
  • Silvio O. Conte, congressman (He and my dad were good friends during their school years)
  • Niraj Shah (born 1973/74), billionaire CEO and co-founder of Wayfair

If you, like me, are surprised by the city where I was born and raised, I have one more interesting, albeit, tragedy that occurred in Pittsfield.

At approximately 10:15AM, President Theodore Roosevelt’s motorcade was travelling along South Street when the mounted troopers assigned to protect him noticed the speeding trolley. As the streetcar turned onto the street with the presidential carriage, the driver rang the trolley bell and attempted to stop. Two cavalrymen flagged down the motorman, ordering the trolley to stop, but it nevertheless collided with the back left wheel of the carriage, smashing the carriage’s back and striking the front wheel as well. The impact sent the carriage into the air briefly.

William Craig yelled for the president to “Look out! Hold fast!” before they were both thrown off the wagon. Craig was thrown under the streetcar and killed instantly while Roosevelt was thrown out and hit his head on the sidewalk. Cortelyou sustained serious injuries. Governor Crane escaped uninjured. Pratt, the driver, struck his head, resulting in a fractured skull. One carriage horse was also killed in the collision.

Like many of New England’s manufacturing centers that experienced an economic decline in the latter part of the 20th century, Pittsfield has been forced to redefine itself. With the reconstruction of prime industrial property at the heart of the city, and an energized arts and entertainment scene in the downtown, Pittsfield has established itself as a cultural center in Berkshire County with the prospect of renewed economic vitality.

Thanks for coming along on this portrait of an American city — my hometown, Pittsfield Massachusetts.

 

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A Widow’s Cause: Bringing Thanksgiving to Victorian America by Jo-Ann Roberts

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The holidays are upon us! I had barely dropped bags of Halloween candy into my shopping cart when I turned into the next aisle and was bombarded by a full-blown display of Christmas. The retail community had completely overlooked the day set aside for gratitude and giving thanks.

This revelation gave me pause, as I wondered how the celebration of Thanksgiving came about. Was it suggested by a group of civic-minded people or just one person? How was it decided to celebrate the day on the fourth Thursday in November?

So, like much of my research, down the rabbit hole I went. To my delight, I discovered once again it was a woman who led the campaign, giving us a day set to give thanks for the blessings and freedoms we enjoy today.

During most of the 19th century, Thanksgiving was not an official holiday. Admittedly, it had its roots in the New England states and was widely celebrated there and in the mid-West. The actual date of the holiday was left to individual states and territories. It could vary widely from September through December but is mostly celebrated in November after the harvest.
While the idea of celebrating a good harvest was an old one, it took a Victorian lady to give it its voice. Specifically, the editor of a highly popular magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale.

Suddenly finding herself a widow and single mother with children to support–including a brand-new baby–Sarah wrote a book, Northwood. Its success led to a job offer for the “editorship” of a new “ladies” magazine, turning Godey’s into one of the most important periodicals in 19th century America. Though it is now remembered primarily for its fashion plates, crafts, and household tidbits, it covered social issues as well.

Year after year, Godey’s Lady’s Book published the same plea. Each year the campaign brought new success. By 1851, 29 out of 31 states celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. However, not on the same day so she continued to insist the holiday be celebrated on the exact same day.

Having thoroughly thought it out, she suggested the last Thursday in November so that “the telegraph of human happiness would move every heart to gladness simultaneously.” To further her cause for a unified day of giving thanks, she pointed out that farm labor was done for the season, and the election cycle was over. Below is the original 1847 plea from Godey’s Lady’s Book.
OUR HOLIDAYS. —”We have but two that we can call entirely national. The New Year is a holiday to all the world, and Christmas to all Christians—but the “Fourth of July” and “Thanksgiving Day” can only be enjoyed by Americans. The annual observance of Thanksgiving Day was, to be sure, mostly confined to the New England States, till within a few years. We are glad to see that this good old puritan custom is becoming popular through the Union…Would that the next Thanksgiving might be observed in all the states on the same day. Then, though the members of the same family might be too far separated to meet around one festival board, they would have the gratification of knowing that all were enjoying the blessing of the day…”

Despite her claims, she had not achieved the ultimate endorsement; a proclamation from the President. In 1861, with civil war looming, she focused on national unity as her strongest selling point.

Finally, under these conditions and the stress of considerable loss of life, a devastated Southern economy, and public support for the holiday, President Abraham Lincoln endorsed and proclaimed, “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelt in the heavens.” Furthermore, he stated, Americans should “fervently implore” blessings from the Almighty to “heal the wounds of the nations, and to restore it…to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.”

Successive presidents continued the tradition and proclaimed a yearly Thanksgiving at the end of every November.  Still not satisfied, Hale’s magazine urged Congress to recognize the holiday. Unfortunately, she didn’t live to see the Congressional Proclamation of the Thanksgiving story (which finally took place in 1941), but by the 1870’s Thanksgiving was already a part of America’s culture.

The national holiday has become just what Sarah Josepha Hale envisioned: a celebration of home and hearth and the blessings for which we are grateful.

 

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Giveaway!

Two lucky winners will each receive an e-book edition of my upcoming release, “Ivy” Christmas Quilt Brides. Just leave a comment below telling me how you celebrate Thanksgiving in your home.

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Upcoming Release

He was the town bully.
She was his target.
Has anything changed?
Years ago, Ivy Sutton was drawn to the new orphan boy in town. Unfortunately, she soon became the focus of Grady Walsh’s mischievous deeds in school.
Ivy is back home in Harmony, Kansas for good but is she willing and able to forgive the boy who made her childhood unbearable?
Grady Walsh lost his heart to the sweet girl the day she gave him a quilt. Now, as a well-liked and respected tradesman in Harmony, can he make up for the reckless actions of his youth? Or will another steal er away before they have a chance to discover a kind of love that might heal the pain from the past?

Top Hats and Interesting Facts

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Everyone knows I just love history and go down rabbit holes fairly frequently. I just love finding little-known things from the past and more often than not, I build a story around them. So I subscribed to Historyfacts.com and they email me every week with something historical.

Do you know how Abraham Lincoln used his top hat? This president was 6’ 4” and this top hat added nine or ten more inches which made him look like a giant. But this accessory was the rage in his day and the majority of men wore them. Even tall ones.

Back to the subject. How did Lincoln made good use of his hat? He stored papers in it. He kept all sorts of different, and sometimes important, documents on top his head inside his hat. And when he was in meetings with his generals, he’d often throw the papers at them to make a point.

Lincoln also kept correspondence in his hat. In 1850, he received a letter from politician Richard S. Thomas and stuffed it inside his hat, going about his business. Then he went out and bought a new hat, putting the old one aside. Weeks went on before he remembered the letter and finally had to apologize to Thomas for not replying sooner.

Maybe a lot of men had the problem of using their hat for a file cabinet! Any kind of document could be stored on top of the wearer’s head. So…the writer in me immediately conjured up a man getting a marriage license and putting it in his hat then forgetting about it. Or any correspondence that needed immediate attention. Or even food. So funny!!

Why haven’t I used this???? It’s a goldmine. The scenarios are endless.

But back to Lincoln. His hat once saved him from an assassination attempt when a gunman shot and the bullet went through the president’s top hat. Secret Service agents found his hat lying in an intersection and were able to discover the position where the gunman fired. I don’t know if they ever knew exactly the gunman’s identity or not. The article didn’t say.

Lincoln had to give many speeches and he stored them in…you guessed it. His top hat. So he’s at the podium, takes off his hat and gets his speech out. Then when he finishes, he stuffed it back in his hat and everyone had a good laugh. True story.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I never knew this about our tallest president.

Wildwood Healer, a women’s fiction, will release October 8th and you can preorder now. To do so, CLICK HERE. 

 

 

Question: Have you ever run across something fascinating, maybe some historical fact or something you read in a book? Or how about this. Think of a funny scenario that should be in a book involving a top hat. I’m going to give away a copy of my Christian historical Love’s First Light, either ebook or print, to one commenter. 

 

Petticoats & Pistols