Pittsfield
Pittsfield (Vol. 21, p. 682) is both a popular resort and a prosperous manufacturing town, with ample water power supplied by the east and west branches of the Housatonic on either side of it. It was here that Henry W. Longfellow (Vol. 16, p. 977) wrote The Old Clock on the Stairs at “Elm Knoll,” the house of his father-in-law, Nathan Appleton (Vol. 2, p. 224), a reference to whose biography in the Britannica discloses the interesting fact that his son, Thomas Gold Appleton, a famous wit in his day, originated the saying, “Good Americans when they die, go to Paris,” which is generally attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes. Just outside Pittsfield lies the village of the Shakers (Vol. 24, p. 771), the curious sect founded by Ann Lee, daughter of a blacksmith in Manchester, England, who came to America with a small party of her adherents in 1714. The road through Adams (Vol. 1, p. 181), affords a view of Greylock Mountain (3535 feet), the highest point in Massachusetts; and at North Adams (Vol. 19, p. 760), there is a natural bridge 50–60 feet high across Hudson Brook; and you can see the ruins of Fort Massachusetts, captured in 1746 by the French with the aid of the Indians. Here is also the western end of the Hoosac Tunnel, 5¾ miles long. The article Tunnels (Vol. 27, p. 405) says that the piercing of this tunnel, begun in 1835 and not finished until 1876, was marked by the first American use of air drills and nitroglycerin; and the article Power Transmission (Vol. 22, p. 232) describes the influence which this successful employment of compressed air had in furthering its use for the noisy “gun” tools now so familiar.
Williamstown
Williamstown (Vol. 28, p. 685), the last town in Massachusetts on your route, is the seat of Williams College; and the “Haystack Monument” in Mission Park, stands where the prayer meeting was held which was the forerunner of the American foreign missionary movement described in the article Missions (Vol. 18, p. 583), which contains the interesting statement that in the 3rd century the proportion of Christians to the whole human race was one to 150, while it is now one to three. The article Vermont (Vol. 27, p. 1025) contains an interesting summary of the early disputes over state boundaries in this part of New England.
Bennington
Bennington (Vol. 3, p. 743) lies at the foot of the Green Mountains, near Mt. Anthony (2345 feet). “The Bennington Battle Monument, a shaft 301 feet high, is said to be the highest battle monument in the world. It commemorates the success gained on the 16th of August, 1777, by a force of nearly 2000 ‘Green Mountain Boys’ and New Hampshire and Massachusetts militia ... over two detachments of General Burgoyne’s army,” of whom 700 were taken prisoners. The article American War of Independence (Vol. 1, p. 842) shows how important an effect this victory had on Burgoyne’s campaign. In 1825 William Lloyd Garrison (Vol. 11, p. 477), the anti-slavery leader, edited a paper at Bennington, leaving it when Benjamin Lundy (Vol. 17, p. 124), the Quaker abolitionist, determined to secure Garrison’s co-operation on a Baltimore abolitionist magazine, “walked through the ice and snow of a New England winter from Boston to Bennington, 125 miles,” and persuaded Garrison to join him. Bennington was the home of Ethan Allen (Vol. 1, p. 691), the frontier hero who led the “Green Mountain Boys” and of Seth Warner (Vol. 28, p. 327), who subsequently became their colonel.
Hanover
On leaving Bennington you can choose any one of several routes to bring you over to the Connecticut River, but, whichever you take, you will be fairly on the main route to the White Mountains (by which you would have gone from New York through Waterbury, Springfield and Greenfield if you had not included the Berkshires in your itinerary) when you reach Hanover, N. H. (Vol. 12, p. 927). Here, “ranges of rugged hills, broken by deep, narrow gorges and by the wider valley of Mink Brook, rise near the river and culminate in Moose Mountain, 2326 feet above the sea.” Near the foot of that peak is the birthplace of Laura D. Bridgman (Vol. 4, p. 559), the first blind deaf-mute to be successfully educated. Dr. S. G. Howe (Vol. 13, p. 837), who was head of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, heard of her case in 1837, took charge of her in October of that year, and by June, 1840, at eleven years of age, her mind had become as well developed as that of a normal child of her age. Charles Dickens saw her when he was in America in 1842, and his account of her case led to the introduction in England, and afterwards in all parts of Europe, of the Howe system of training.
Dartmouth College
The attractions which Hanover owes to its picturesque site are enhanced by the fine buildings and the notably beautiful campus of Dartmouth College (Vol. 7, p. 838). The purpose for which this college was originally founded is quaintly expressed in its charter, granted by George III in 1769. See the article on Indians, North American (Vol. 14, p. 452). This document ordains “that there be a college erected in our Province of New Hampshire by the name of Dartmouth College, for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing and all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and christianizing children of pagans ... and also of English youth and any other.”