The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1865-11-11
A Curious lsit Of His tory.

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A correspondent of the Hartford Pres
E writing from Charlemont, Mass, gives tn
c following singular narrative, illustrative O
/. the peculiarities Of "the olden time:'
Ii you look upon good map of this re-
g'on you Will see that the town of Charlie
I, mont lthe origin Of the name is obscure, bul
one tradition says it was first called Ches
ieys Mount. from the name of an early
settier,) Is of very singular shape. 1t lies
along the DeerGed, embracing both sides @,
the rl7er only above the centre village, from
which l write, containing narrow strips of
fertile meadow land shut in by abrupt hills.
From the mouth of North river to Zoar
bridge the town is thirteen miles long. but
four miles below here it is only the breadth
OF the farm of Colonel Leavi,t, a scant strlp
OF lonely meadow. Indeed, the town at this
point IS almost cut in two by an angle which
Is run INTO 1t by the town of ncath. As
originally lald out, the town was broa,; at
',iS point and the reason of its present
Snape IS SO curious as to be worth giving.
he Grst settled ministn- of the place ha
fore tne revolutionary war. was H. b.
Jeremiah Leavltt, who came from SuuIeIu.
conn. lie was stern old Puritan, of intol.
Grant disposition and naughty manners. and
not very We .iked by his congregational
par snioherS, who were nevertheless com.
Peiied 10 support him. Add 10 this the fac,
'.ia' ne was tory, and we have an expana.
'>"''""a which or.s
non "a ,ne uUot,.v .,~....- ..---- -" up
against him among the ola patriots. hey /
at length proceeded to the length OF barring
him out of the meeting house, a constable 1
standing at the door all day Sunday to keep
out the persistent old royast For many /
years he adhered to his settlement, and .
efforts were vain t. remove him, though the .
indignant farmers kept him out of the meet
ing house, aud refused to pay him his .
saiary. But he occupied the parsonage
farm, which lay a; a little distance from the .
river on a small water course, and at 9Th .
brought suit against the town for his salary,
withheld tor S many years. The courts Sus- /
tanned his suit, and gave him execution .
TO collect his church dues from the inhabit-
ants. he was not slow 10 exercis his legal .
rights, aud levied on property wherever he
could lind 1t, annoying the welto-do and
uEcouselously expressing the poor.
Many stories are told of his exactious
There was a poor named Grimes, (per-
haps the ''old" one whose coat, if he had
ANY, was bCttoned down before who lived
near him, with large family who was una
Bile to Pay his church tax. He had, it seems,
little avsuiab!e personal property, except one
cow. upon which the family depended But
ParsOu Leavitt seized the COW aud soil her,
In spite of the entreaties of Grimes, aud
perhaps the little Grimeses. When Grimes
demonstrated, the parson replied ''you must
call on the town
Not long after, Mr.. rimes, who seemed t.
have something of the rough LumJr of The
time. had the opportunity to happily re:oEl
the advice OF the old Tory. The parsJn was
returning one cold winter day from RDekIand,
and, reaching the opposite side Of the river
at evening, attempted 10 cross at the place
where ferry s'Ii exists The river was
frozen over. bat the ice was him, and when
I little distance from the shore, j: broke
under irs reverend load. ard horse and man
were sguscd in the icy stream. whore the
depth was probably not great. he parson,
seeing a man on the opposite bank, shouted
Justify for help. The man was Grimes.
Help, help roared the parson. II IN
drowning -
Who Is t ?' halloed Grimes, who stood
coolly surveying the accident.
'Parson Leavitt''
"Parson, I'd adg!sc you to caH on the
tora,' was the response Of the imperiurba-
be Crimes, as he turned away and lett the
minister to founder as best he might.
That he got out is certain, for he continued
to annoy the people by collecting money for
preaching they would not hear. 1t must
have been curious sight Of Sunday morn
ing, the wrat Y parson before the barred
meeting house door, and the congregation
lounging about, watching the irat& and bat
fled divine nurse has anger.
II shall go ant; preach the Gospel in the
barn youder,' exclaims the minister.
It'll be the first time you ever preached
the Gospel shouts some irreverent one in
the crowd.
But the day came when the town got its
revenge and in the strangest fashion on re-
cord. AZ it impossible to remove The
parsOn from the parish move him out of
town, they resolved to get him ou; another
way. The time came TO incori iorate the
town of Heath, and the shrewd IN en of the
valley got the General Court to run the line Of
Heath in a sharp zigzag into Charlie mont, just
so as To encircle and cut out the parsonage
farm upon which the Rev. Jeremiah retained
his hold And that was the way hey scoop
ed him ont of town, and this is the cause of
the wasplke shape of Char'emont. 1t may
be that this was done after he had ceased to
be the settled minister; if so, it most strongly
shows how obnoxious he was, wien the in
habtants were willing to sacrifice n part of
their territory to get rid Of him. AT any rate,
the grouty tory was still in possession of the
farm.