By Carole Owens
We know the first Europeans to settle in Lenox were John and Sarah Hinsdale, although we do not know the exact year they arrived. We know John and Sarah were related by marriage to Timothy Woodbridge. Timothy Woodbridge (February 27, 1709 – May 10, 1774) was an American missionary, deacon and schoolteacher, later a judge, representative, and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Stockbridge. Woodbridge had a massive land grant in what is now the Lenox/Stockbridge border along Old Stockbridge Road and we know that that is where John and Sarah Hinsdale built their home.
We know they were in Lenox in 1751 because Rhona Hinsdale, first European child born in Lenox, arrived on November 28, 1751. Born in 1724, John would have been 27 years old. Ironically, we know the family was in Lenox in 1755 because they left. It was in the midst of the French and Indian War (called the Seven-Year War in Europe) and rumors were rife that the tribes allied with the French would march through Stockbridge/Lenox on their way south. Stockbridge built “strong houses” (forts) and settlers living all around the area fled to the strong houses when danger seemed imminent.
John and Sarah might have called the town in which they resided – Stockbridge. Confusion about where the boundary lies persists to this day. Or they might have called it Yokuntown. Jehoiakim Yokun, a mid-18th century Native American of the Mahican tribe reputedly purchased all the unsold land between Stockbridge and Pittsfield – what we call Lenox and Richmond today – for 12 English pounds from two fellow tribesmen. The land was subsequently acquired by the English in the 1750s.
It is a story that needs context. For example, the name “Jehoiakim” may indicate that Yokun was baptized by the Dutch in the Hudson Valley, a region where most Mahicans resided at the time. Furthermore, the Native American community had a different understanding of land ownership than the “English.”
Yokun subsequently was active in the French Indian War (1754). Later, his son Timothy fought in the American Revolution (1775). As a member of the Stockbridge Militia, Timothy fought at the Siege of Boston and died in a battle in the vicinity of Bronx, N.Y.
In 1767, Yokuntown split off from Richmond and was incorporated. It was named Lenox in honor of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox, a British aristocrat and political figure who was a strong advocate for colonial civil rights. The name Yokun was dropped and perhaps forgotten until 1971 when George Wislocki, first director of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, protected the area and named it Yokun Ridge. Yokun Ridge is part of West Stockbridge Mountain and Lenox Mountain, a ten-mile stretch of Taconic Mountain south of Pittsfield that separated Lenox and Richmond. Also Native Americans had a different under Lenox became the Shiretown (county seat) in 1786 and remained so for 82 years. During that period the courthouse was built. It is still standing and used as the Town Library. Town Hall was built, then moved from Walker Street to Housatonic Street, and reused as a shop and restaurant. Buildings were not demolished. In good Yankee fashion, they believed in “waste not want not.”
There was an Influenza Epidemic in 1789 and 1790 sickening and killing many.
According to the New England Historical Society, the epidemic certainly reached Lenox, Massachusetts, in late 1789 and again in spring 1790, bringing significant illness and death to the community consistent with the broader New England epidemic pattern. That is the backdrop for the moment when Lenox re-routed the main road through town. Could it also be a cause?
