История Рэйчел Симондс: первая уроженка Уильямстауна, чей вклад в развитие общины заслуживает отдельного праздника

Histories, even local histories, often focus on men and wars. Nothing against Benjamin Simonds, but Williamstown should celebrate a Rachel Simonds Day. She was the first child of European extraction born in town, grew up during the town’s earliest days, was widowed young and was the mother of the next generation. Her father, Benjamin, was a military man who became the leading citizen of the nascent community. He is referenced 20 times in “Williamstown: The First 250 Years.” While garrisoning Fort Massachusetts, he built a home near the high point of Main Street. The French and Native allies attacked the fort five miles to the east on Aug. 19, 1746. The fort surrendered and the garrison, wives and children were marched for their first night to a meadow where Simonds was to build River Bend Tavern 24 years later. Gravely ill while imprisoned in Quebec, he didn’t return to Williamstown for over a year. Then he continued to serve under Ephraim Williams at Fort Mass, although in 1752 he slipped off to Northampton to marry Mary Davis. Rachel, named for Benjamin’s mother, was born April 8 the next year, the year of the first Proprietors’ meeting. In 1762, he opened a tavern at the present intersection of Routes 7 and 2. In the American Revolution, Simonds was commissioned a colonel in charge of the Second Berkshire Regiment of militia, which fought in the Battle of White Plains in 1776. In 1777, he met with Seth Warner and John Stark at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington before the Battle of Bennington, where his regiment helped defeat a contingent of the pro-British. He then offered his slave, Ishmael Thomas, his freedom in return for serving in Simonds’ place in the Continental Army. In 1765, Simonds was sent to Boston to secure Ephraim Williams’ will, which set in motion the founding of Williams College. We don’t have Rachel’s diary, if she wrote one, or even an image of her. We know, however, that the concept of childhood as we know it now had not been invented. Likely she worked hard as soon as she was able. We can imagine that her first job was helping her exhausted mother take care of her six sisters and three brothers. Maybe she worked in the tavern as well. Young people, other than Simonds, were scarce, which might be why, at 19, Rachel married her 43-year-old neighbor. Or maybe she just needed a change of pace. In any case, Thomas Train had the good grace to die soon thereafter and, in a couple years, she married Benjamin Skinner, one year her junior, who kept a tavern with his brother. Tavern-keeping was the way to prestige and relative prosperity in a community that was just a crossroad in the wilderness. Rachel’s gravestone, like others of the Simonds family, is in Westlawn Cemetery near the lot on which she grew up. It is worded as a “tribute” to her, the “amiable consort” of Benjamin Skinner. I imagine her enduring the hard work and frontier conditions in good spirits. I’ll bet she demonstrated those when waiting on tables and when, in 1770, her father shifted his tavern to River Bend Farm. Her daughter with Train, Sally (Sarah), became part of her flock of six with Skinner, and she got another crack at tavern-keeping. Her brother-in-law, Thomas, Williams College treasurer, served numerous distinguished positions in the state, although he also might have absconded with some public money. Sally must have inherited her mother’s traits. She married a Blair. When she died at 91, she was “universally respected and beloved.” That’s according to the Williamstown Historical Museum’s “Discover Historical Williamstown,” which, along with the book on the town’s 250th anniversary, were the main sources for this column. At least, that’s how it looks from the White Oaks.