Some History Presented Through Family Records
This chapter is taken from records kept by some families who were
important in the life of the town. It is not basically genealogy but is a
method of giving history a personal touch. The Historical Society welcomes
family records and history for a file to be made available in the library.
* * * * * * * * *
THE BARTLETTS (Chiefly from records of Elsie V. Bartlett)
The Bartletts have a complete genealogical record tracing their family
back to Robert Bartlett, who came to Plymouth On the Ann in 1623. He married
Mary Warren, daughter of Richard Warren, who had come on the Mayflower.
Edward Bartlett Jr., (1774 - 1849) was of the sixth generation of Bartletts
in this country. He had been born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, and brought to
Cumnington. In 1795 he married Mary Farr of Cummington, and they came to
Worthington to set up their home on Cold Street. The site of their house,
certainly a log cabin, was probably the same site on which the house of their
son Tilson stood later. One can still find traces of the cellar hole of that
house in the woods at the Y where the two arms of Cold Street meet after
coming in from Old North Road.
Edward and Mary Farr Bartlett had nine children, among whom were Arunah
(1797 - 1894) and Tilson(1801 = 1877). Arunah married Amanda Tower; Tilson
married Permilia Tower.
Across the road from this early Bartlett home was the inn of Nathaniel
Daniels, a "first settler", who built, to replace his log cabin, the first
frame house in town, in which it is said that Tilson's first child was born.
When that house was torn down, some timbers were used in building the Tilson
Bartlett home.
Tilson Bartlett's family
The Bartletts in town today (1983) are descendants of Tilson and Permilia.
They had ten children. They were Millie, Noyes, Jacob, Calvin, Tillie, the
twins Howard and Horace, Charles, Ellen, and John. (Their mother, Mrs. Tilson
Bartlett, died at age 56 in 1867.) The oldest married Alfred Kilbourm,
Jacob, with his wife, ran the first hotel in town, the Bartlett Hotel, for
fifty years, after which their daughter and her husband, the Trows, were
the innkeepers of what became Worthington Inn (later called Worthington
Lodge). (A complete family tree of this family has been prepared, available
in the Society Genealogical file being prepared.)
Arunah Bartlett
Arunah, brother of Tilson, born in 1797, lived to be 97 years of age.
He must have had a character and personality that guaranteed that he would
never be forgotten. His wife, Amanda Tower, (daughter of National Tower)
who lived to be 90, was a strong character also.
They lived in several different houses in town. Elizabeth Jones Mann,
who wrote "Childhood Memories", remembered them as living in the house later
called the Kilbourn house, mowowned by Okrents. (And this is the house
Elsie V. Bartlett sketches in her book as theirs.) Elizabeth J. Mann wrote;
"Uncle Arunah was a real Yankee genius. Anything he needed he
seemed to know how to make... Adjoining their house on the north and
west were his workshop, water power, and storage of wood and vehicles.
"He was fond of music, and he made several musical instruments...
One1 I know for sure, was a violin... He played by ear, which he said
was the best way... She used to dance all around their living room while
he played.
"When he was eight years old he dug and put into the cellar over
three hundred bushels of potatoes. He said, 'not so hard as it might
seem'. The potato piece was quite near the house, and he arranged it
so he could roll the potatoes in through the cellar window to the bin
where his father kept them."
When they decided to visit relatives in Michigan, "Uncle Arunah
built a carriage and equipped it for a camping expedition. As soon as
the ground was settled one spring they started, and returned late in
the fall.
"A brother of Aunt Amanda came to live with them, as he was poor
and not able to support himself, but their healthful way of living did
not appeal to him, and he soon made other arrangements. Bread and milk
was their staple diet in their later years, with plenty of baked sweet
apples."
At a meeting of the Historical Society in 1929 Arunah and Amanda were
recalled by several members. Fordyce Knapp and Mrs. Sydney Smart remembered
their home-built carriage, as did Miss Nan Heacock, who added:
"Aunt Amanda always wore one of those bonnets that you draw your
head into." Sydney smart remembered the bonnet also: "Black silk", he thought
it, "and very dingy". Miss Heacock recalled the report that Aunt Amanda liked
light literature but was always careful to hide it under the mattress when he
appeared.
The commentators disagreed on the stories of Arunah and Amanda's
religious differences. Miss Heacock thought Amanda stayed home and let
Arunah do the church-going. Sydney Smart said "No". He had heard that
when they were first married they argued about which church to attend. He
had announced that he was going to the Cummington Church, but Amanda got
ready first and drove off to the Worthington Church without him. Thereafter
she was the church-goer, not he. At any rate, Arunah was generous to the
Worthington Church. He was the one that gave the bell for the Colonial
Church - and church records show he left $527.85 to the church at his death,
An important aspect of his life was his position as "town banker". He
often lent money to purchasers of property.
Horace F. Bartlett, 1845-1925, of "The Spruces"
With Something of His Predecessors and Progeny
(A tribute to her father written by Elsie Venner Bartlett is the basis
for this paper.)
The Rev. Mr. Huntington once said, "If I have work to have done, I
always go to the busiest man in the town--Horace Bartlett." The minister
knew him well. He was a deacon of the church for twenty-nine years. His
good tenor voice was heard in the choir. It was said that he knew his Bible
from cover to cover. When the church burned, he helped raise money for a new
building, and promptly pledged fifty dollars, which he probably did not have
on hand, but he was confident he could earn it, for his ways of making money
were many and varied.
He was a farmer, yes, on thirty acres of pasture and mowing that he
added to "The Spruces" (present home of the Ray Magargals) when he moved
his family there in 1882; but with milk bringing three cents a quart at "the
creamery," farming barely yielded a living. He found other work, including
road work, bridge building, driving the stage, cutting out ice, and trans-
planting fir trees. (He was famous for his success in making them grow.)
He set up basket-making in a part of the house, with John Kinne as his
partner the first year. At one time sixteen men were employed. One outlet
was in Gloversville, where gloves were taken as payment and brought back to
be sold in Worthington. Basket-making was employment for the winter after
the crops were in.
"The Spruces," once part of a tobacco barn, then a creamery, then a
basket factory, became later, when the family home, a summer boarding house
for city guests. Surely credit for this addition to family income should go
chiefly to Horace's wife, Caroline (Graves). Her daughters remember that she
would arise at four o'clock to get her baking done, or do a big laundry by
hand, before getting breakfast for the family and farm helpers by six o'clock,
and for twenty boarders by eight.
Horace loved to buy and sell property. He bought, in all, seven places
in Worthington, and sold all but the home place. In the Northampton Registry
of Deeds, there are thirty-three recordings of his transfers of deeds. His
wife once chided him: "You sell everything you own, I should think you would
sell us." He replied, with a twinkle in his eye, "Once in a while a man gets
something so darn poor he can't get rid of it."
His wit, as well as his appreciation of his wife, can also be seen in his
reply to a summer neighbor who complained because she couldn't find a man to
work for her. She thought "the Worthington women are wonderful, but the men
are a poor lot." Horace told her, "They must have been middling smart men to
get such wonderful women for wives."
Caroline Graves Bartlett was born in Whately, Massachusetts, and died in
Worthington in 1925. She had been a schoolteacher before her marriage to
Horace Bartlett, as a number of her descendants have been since, She kept a
diary which reflects the life of her family and on the town.
Entries from Mrs. Bartlett's Diary
1887:
April 2 - Our church burned.
Sunday - Had service in Town Hall. Deacon Lafayette Stevens
preached.
April 10 - Mr. Huntington spent might here, as it was such bad walking
he could not get home.
April 18 - Parish meeting. Chose committee for building.
May 14 - Horace set out the Reverend's trees.
October 11 - Horace Cole brought to town and buried today.
1888:
March 11 - It is a stormy day. Lafayette Stevens preached.
March 12 - A dreadful night. The snow is piled mountain high.
March 13 - Snowed and blowed all day. The snow piled up to the roof
of the piazza, and runs to the north end of the shop.
March 14 (Wed.) No mail since Saturday. Cleared off this p.m. The
men are trying to clear the roads.
March 15 - Huntington stage got up tonight. No mail.
March 16 - (Friday) Williamsburg and Hinsadle stages got home at noon.
March 17 - All the mails went out and came back. No such storm known
for years - 5' 2 1/2" deep, on a level.
March 19 - Pleasant day. Took Mr. Streeter's body to Williamsburg.
Paid $5 for going. Awful hard going.
April 29 - Went to church today. It was Mr. Huntington's 36th birthday.
Went over and took a look at the new church, which I think is
very nice.
May 5 - Set Mr. Huntington's trees.
May 23 - Church dedicated.
Sept. 4 - Mr. Huntington died at Amherst of perforation
Sept. 7 - Mr.H. buried.
Sept. Memorial service on Sunday
Nov. 11 - Colder than Greenland at church.