Colonel John Ashley House

Col. John Ashley House
Location 117 Cooper Hill Rd., Sheffield, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°3′34″N 73°21′23″W / 42.05944°N 73.35639°W / 42.05944; -73.35639Coordinates: 42°3′34″N 73°21′23″W / 42.05944°N 73.35639°W / 42.05944; -73.35639
Area 4.9 acres (2.0 ha) (original size)
35 acres (14 ha) (after boundary increase)
Built 1735 (1735)
NRHP reference # 75001915[1] (original)
75002172 (increase)
Significant dates
Added to NRHP February 10, 1975
Boundary increase August 11, 1975

The Colonel John Ashley House is a historic house museum at 117 Cooper Hill Road in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Built in 1735 by a prominent local leader, it is one of the oldest houses in southern Berkshire County. The house was acquired in 1972 and The museum is owned and operated by The Trustees of Reservations, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

Description

The Ashley House stands in a rural area of central southern Sheffield, on the south side of Cooper Hill Road, west of the village of Ashley Falls. The house stands on 35 acres (14 ha) historically associated with it, It is not on its original site Though, that was on the Housatonic River, the House having been moved 3/10 of a mile in 1930 to improve its siting relative to the road and associated outbuildings. The property is adjacent to Bartholomew's Cobble, a nature preserve also owned by The Trustees of Reservations.[2]

The house is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a side-gable roof and central chimney. A 2-1/2 story cross-gabled ell extends to the rear, also with a chimney. The exterior is finished in wooden clapboards. The main facade is five bays wide, with an elaborate central doorway surround. Pilasters rise to a wide entablature capped by a broken pediment.[2]

The house is typical of early 18th century rural American architecture, with furnishings and items dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is open for tours on weekends from Memorial Day through Columbus Day.[3]

History

To the east of this area were villages of Hampshire County – Springfield, Westfield, and Northampton; filling up with burgeoning families needing more land.

The region was dangerous, and the government was anxious for settlement. People wanted inexpensive land, and it was there – on the other side of the mountains. And so without hesitation, enterprising pioneers advanced westward to the ever-extending frontier.

Massachusetts had been rechartered in 1691 as a royal province with a representative council and assembly. Voting privileges under the new charter were no longer restricted to members of the established church, but were granted to all property-owners.

Beginnings of Sheffield

Eager to become landowners, in 1722 two different groups of Hampshire County men petitioned the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay for two tracts of land along the Housatonic River.

The King Philip had instructed that township-size grants be made to groups of 50 or more families who intended to settle the land themselves. Governor Shute called an investigating committee, who approved the grants, and he signed them on June 30th, 1722.

The adjacent tracts would each be seven miles square. One grant was contiguous with the Massachusetts-Connecticut boundary line and was conveyed to Joseph Parsons and 115 others. The second grant was northward along the river, and went to Thomas Nash and 60 others. All this land became two townships.

A court-appointed committee was authorized to admit settlers, grant lots, and take charge of the business affairs of the newcomers. This committee consisted of John Stoddard and Henry Dwight of Northampton, Luke Hitchcock of Springfield, Samuel Porter of Hadley, and a THEN Capt of the militia John Ashley of Westfield.

The stipulations made by the court were customary for pioneers of that day. They were to settle their land in a compact, regular, and defensible manner.

They were to choose among the petitioners the 55 whom they judged most likely to establish a permanent settlement.

They were to allow the settler NO MORE than three years to build and occupy a suitable dwelling and to cultivate the prescribed amount of land (12 acres) in order to be entitled to their grants

The committee met on March 19th, 1723, in Springfield, and accepted the petitions of 55 proposed settlers and allocated lands to them. Title to the land was given to the committee on April 25 in 1724, this Deed was signed and sealed by the Chief & twenty other indians, as well as before John Ashley, Justice of the Peace

THE SETTLEMENT

John Ashley ( 1709 -1802) He was the Son of John Joseph Ashley and was One of the First Settlers, As well as a leading citizen of the area, heading the local militia during the French and Indian War, ending his active career with the rank of Colonel[2]

in 1735, at the age of 25 Ashley Married , Hanna Hogeboom, the house was built the Same year by Ashley, who moved to the area from Westfield, John Ashley's father in law, Pieter Had given to the Ashley family two slaves, as a wedding gift, Bett and lizze -

in the SAME YEAR - a road, later referred to as the “Great Road,” had been cut through the forest from Westfield to Sheffield,  the Indians were reimbursed by Capt. John Ashley for a strip of land 2 miles wide and 26 miles long.

HOLDINGS

John Ashley obtained the first sawmill charter in Berkshire County in order to furnish planks for the Great Road begun in 1731, The house timbers were saw using the Cider sawmill

At the foot of the falls on the west side of the river stood the ironworks, iron ore for which was transported from the mines in Salisbury over the shoulder of Miles Mountain, now Cooper Hill, and across the Great Bridge, Ashley’s gristmill was located on the east side of Ironworks River,and was instrumental in developing the iron industry

Ashley improved the interior of his own house sometime during the 1760s or early 1770s. The improvements included the installation of elaborate paneling and a fireplace in the study, plastering of ceilings, and re-trimming the exterior of the house.. It is likely that the kitchen at this time was still in the southwest room or what is now the southwest parlor. The rooms at the rear of the house (present kitchen, pantry and southeast bedroom) were unheated and in a different configuration.

By the 1760s, probably his most prosperous decade, it appears that he was operating a store, sawmill, gristmill, potash works, cider mill, tanneries, and the ironworks

Ashley’s lands produced large quantities of hay, corn, rye, oats, flax, fruit for cider, wheat, and tobacco; the extensive meadows provided forage for herds of cattle and sheep; his woodlands yielded charcoal for the ironworks.

He was Judge of the County Court from 1765 till it was dismissed during the war of the Revolution in 1781

In 1773 Ashley served as a Moderator of a Group of eleven men including Theodore Sedgwick, the Sheffield Declaration,was drafted on Jan 5th, in the upstairs study of the house, It made a statement against British tyranny and for individual rights. It was approved by the town on January 12, 1773 and was printed in The Massachusetts Spy on February 18, 1773, The House was the center of social, economic & many political discussions.

By the American Revolutionary War, Ashley was too old to participate militarily, but he was instrumental in developing the iron industry in nearby Salisbury, Connecticut for the war effort.[2]

,

1880 John Ashley's wife, Hannah,who was raised in the strict Dutch culture, Bet came into conflict as she prevented Hannah from striking a servant girl with a heated shovel, she shielded the girl and received a deep wound in her arm. As the wound healed, Bet left it uncovered as evidence of her harsh treatment

In 1781,Brom & Elizabeth "Mum Bett" Freeman, slave's in the Ashley household, Mum Bett had gone under hard conditions, Attorney,Theodore Sedgwick successfully argued their case and won them Their freedom under the new state constitution through a celebrated 1781 state court battle that marked the end of slavery in the state, as the was to test the status of slavery under the new state constitution.

the Ashleys had four children , Major General John Ashley (1736-1799) and Jane Ashley (1738-1814) Two more daughters followed in 1740 (Mary) and 1744 (Hannah)

Col. Ashley, the reigning patriarch of the clan, had been the leading taxpayer in the community for nearly half a century. BUT in in November 1799, His Son john or Maj Gen Ashley, died unexpectedly.  As his Wife had already passed away in 1790,

Col. John Ashley remained alone in his house with three elderly African men – former slaves, now servants - who remained after the 1781 lawsuit. Joining him in the house during the latter part of the decade and until his death, as a housekeeper, nurse, and companion was a widow, Mrs. Jane Steel

By the time of his death in 1802, age 93 years, he owned more than 3000 acres with sixteen dwelling houses, BUT grandson, William Ashley 29 at the TIme took over the Family affairs -

This divided the holdings prematurely and diluted the wealth of the family. By 1838 both the Col. Ashley House and General John Ashley House, and most of the lands once held by Col. John Ashley had been sold out of the family - to Consolidate the Family properties

William Ashley, retained control of the mills, store, and ironworks until his death in 1849, but did little to expand and pass on the Ashley wealth.

A four sided Monument, to Col Ashley & his Son & grandson & his great Grand Daughter is at Sackett Cemetery, also called the Ashley Falls Cemetery, The original gravestones for these men are located in the Barnard Cemetery.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "NRHP nomination for Colonel John Ashley House". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  3. ↑ "Colonel John Ashley House". The Trustees of Reservations. Retrieved 2013-11-28.
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