Mischief and Misfits, The Blandford Chronicles

Mischief and Misfits,

The Blandford Chronicles

2nd Edition -2006

By:

Frank J. Verderber

This book or its contents may not be reprinted, translated, or copied without written permission of the author or his authorized agents pursuant to the section107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act or its amendments, under penalty of law.

Copyright © MM IV

This book represents an edited E-Book rendition of the

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004106444

E-published ISBN:

Verderb Publishing

Blandford / Sandisfield, Ma

fjverd333@gmail.com

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

DEDICATION

I wrote this book

for wife Carol -

my flesh and bone,

and my marrow,

and,

my aunt Louise

who taught me well,

a way to write,

my book to sell;

for:

entertainment,

philosophy,

education,

poetry.

CONTENTS

Preface:

Chapter One: Blandford What?

Chapter Two: The Story of John Crow

Chapter Three: A Grave Error

Chapter Four: Apple Jill

Chapter Five: Millers’ Swamp

Chapter Six: The Devil’s Buttock

Chapter Seven: A Really Nice Love Story

Chapter Eight: The Man with Many Questions

Chapter Nine: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Chapter Ten: Hogweed

Epilog

Other Books by Frank J. Verderber

Preface

Facts concerning Blandford:

It is my intention that the reader would have a little fun with the characters of early Blandford. I have tried to be accurate with the time frames, names of certain individuals, and the general happenstance, within colonial and post-Revolutionary Massachusetts. In doing so, the reader may indulge himself a bit, in the culture and the what ifs of life.

History is not simply one or two facts that create memorable effects on cultures, but the simple un-scripted events of common life that eventually add up, and force later generations to take notice in hindsight. Some of these events are so strange; in fact, that one thinks the truth is fictitious, while the exaggerated, is acceptable to our ears.

So it is with modern dictum,

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

The period between 1730 and 1760 was extremely turbulent during the reign of King George II. He was the second, in a line of German (Hannovian) rulers, the son of George I. His interests in political affairs were focused more on the Austrian Succession Wars, and on his ruler-ship of Hannover, Germany. His activities created a power vacuum within the English court, thus providing impetus for political intrigue, and the continuous colonial Wars with France and Spain.

George II had a colony named after him, Georgia; by General James Edward Oglethorpe in 1733. The new colony was for European whites only, until slavery caught on by 1749. This period allowed entrepreneurs of every sort to find the Colonies a place to stake a claim, make a buck, and rise in power.

King George III, who reigned 1761 – 1820, was better suited for the British court than his father and grandfather. He had one major problem; he suffered from a debilitating disease that made him appear to be demon possessed or insane. This on again – off again impediment cost him the war and almost his throne. He is suspected of suffering from porphyria, which is a metabolic disorder where an over-abundance of porphyrins are produced which cause dilutions, effect sight, and removal to darkness, constipation, and abdominal pain. The doctors at the time were constantly interested in the King’s bowel movement – numbers and shape!

One entrepreneur, of the George II period, was William Shirley, who is mentioned in the memoirs of Blandford’s own Reverend John Keep (circa 1820) as well as U. S. colonial and Massachusetts history. Reverend Keep explains the story of Blandford’s township incorporation, in which the settlement’s original name, Glasgow, is usurped by the whim of the new Colonial Governor, William Shirley. But a second look at the period in question, while considering the contemporary events within England that had affected William Shirley, worked to the favor of re-naming Glasgow, as Blandford.

Shirley came to Boston in 1731 on the ship Blandford (captained by William Martin) to seek his fortune under the tutelage of Governor Jonathan Belcher. The year in which Shirley left England, a great fire had broken out and consumed the entire Town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset. Shirley who lived in London, a mere 100 miles from Blandford Forum, would have known about the fire and certainly discussed it, while on board ship. The fire forced the Crown to rebuild the hamlet of Blandford Forum, thus making it one of the best examples of Georgian architecture, found today.

As fate would have it, when Glasgow residents entreated the Massachusetts General Court and the governor for township status, the Georgian styled Church, of St. Peter and Paul, was finished in Blandford Forum that same year [1739], and offered much fan fair at the Court of King George II. In the years 1740-41, Shirley helped to unseat Governor Belcher and sent him packing for England. The new Governor (Shirley) began selling land in Western Massachusetts, under the Land Bank construct, to fill his coffers. What better way to schmooze the Court in London, than as one of his first official acts, to name a Town in honor of the King’s new rebuilding enterprise.

If you find this explanation convoluted, consider that the architects, who rebuilt the town of Blandford Forum, bore the names John and William Bastard. Not only that, but the Blandford Forum of England is a very small rural town, much like our Massachusetts hamlet, which also has a pernicious biting fly problem.

The name Blandford comes from the Saxon: blaen-y-ford which means, the place in front of the ford (river crossing). The name Forum means market place. And so, this little town of 500 homes in an agricultural setting, near the shallow river of Stour, in England, is for all intents and purposes, rightly named: the market place in front of the river crossing.

Consider for a moment, the market place of the pre-Revolutionary Blandford of Massachusetts. It was a wayfarer’s paradise when traveling between Albany and Boston. The period between 1740 and even though to the middle 1800’s saw a lot of coaches crossing the Berkshires from both directions. Though it was a small oasis - crisscrossed with many a shallow stream and ford – Blandford, Massachusetts boasted multiple taverns.

It should please the reader to know, that while Blandford served up many a stein of ale to thirsty travelers, the English Blandford produced, and is still producing, a fine English stout by its own breweries. Could Governor Shirley have named our town anything but Blandford?

I could continue with other odd similarities like the English resident’s vernacular, through which they refer to their home as Blaan-verd (The place of Verd); an etymological coincidence with my last name, but I won’t go there!

Enjoy!

Frank Verderber, Author

Chapter One

Blandford What?

Blandford found us, or we it, but the marriage - as I have come to understand it - was not exclusively by our own will. To find the town is a deliberate act. The traveler must ascend a winding secondary highway, which reaches a summit of 1,500 ft. and is the home to some 1,000 private souls. Their fortunes or misfortunes chain them to the land with its boulder-ridden terrain and hardwood forests. Every tangled bush, every twisted tree, and misalign boulder appears to hold a haunt or some nondescript place for the souls of the previous inhabitants. The secrets of past lives eaten by tragedy or consumed by a twist of fate, seems to linger just out of sight; like the movement of deer after the season has opened. It was this mystery which enchanted us and provided impetus to our involvement.

But what brought us there in the first place, was Blandford’s historic character. Settled in the early seventeen hundreds by Scottish immigrants, it rests in the Southern foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, and lies along an ancient American Indian trail; used by settlers and the military, throughout the colonial period.

The trail, now a main road, which intersects the town, was named the Knox Trail, after Henry Knox, a Bostonian and military enthusiast, who married rich. His exploits are famed, as he had delivered artillery and supplies over the trail to Albany and into the waiting arms of Washington’s army, at Fort Ticonderoga. This military exposition gave General Washington the upper hand forcing the surrender of the British General, Burgoyne.

Henry Knox’s military adventures, - and one specific hunting mishap which lost him two fingers - did not quell his truculent Scottish-Irish whimsies. Bartering with local Indians and drinking ale at the local taverns of Blandford, Knox found his fortuitous portals through the trail, while evading the English spies and military patrols. Such are the colorful characters of this estranged hill town, of the Massachusetts Berkshire Mountains.

Encouraged by the history and secrets of the town, we built our house well, upon a second mountain