| Horatio Alger was born in Revere, Massachusetts in 1834. As a young man he studied theology at the Harvard Divinity School and arrived in Deerfield in the summer of 1856. He had been offered a summer principalship at Deerfield Academy and remained in town for just that term. Horatio Alger is certainly better known for his "rags to riches" boy's stories such as Ragged Dick and Tattered Tom, but Deerfield can also claim an association with him. | 
| | | | Erastus Barnard kept a tavern in the 1790s in Deerfield, a bustling farming community in those years following the American Revolution. Barnard's Tavern was a well known stagecoach stop along the Boston to Albany route. The tavern had a ballroom upstairs that was used for community meetings, parties and occasional lodgers. The Greenfield Gazette even records an elephant being shown in a Deerfield ballroom in 1812. Ballrooms were certainly multi-purpose! | 
| | | | The Deerfield Inn was a ramshackle summer hotel in the early 20th century when Cora Carlisle owned it. She kept the old Inn for the occasional overnight guest or summer traveler stopping in this sleepy little village. The Inn was a trolley stop and gathering place for townspeople, and the comfortable, if tattered, parlors were inviting. Mrs. Carlisle was both cook and Innkeeper and was probably also housekeeper and keeper of many confidences for this country village. | 
| | | | Consider Dickinson was born in Deerfield in 1761 and for much of his life this colorful man owned the reputation of "town character." "Uncle Sid" (as he was known) was the supplier of endless humorous anecdotes and songs for young and old. He was revered as a man of industry, good judgment and economy in a small village where everyone knew everyone else. Consider Dickinson's house stood on the site of the present Deerfield Academy Main Building on the town common. | 
| | | | The Everett House was a large, wooden frame hotel that stood near the Deerfield town common from 1880 to 1883. Built by two brothers, Edward and Frederick Everett, it was said to be "one of the best hotels in the region" according to the Greenfield Gazette. Deerfield's venerable historian George Sheldon notes in his History of Deerfield that the Everett House burned accidentally in 1883. In the following year the Deerfield Inn was built. | 
| | | | Samson Frary was a "professional" pioneer and, as such, became the first settler in Deerfield. George Sheldon's History of Deerfield lists Samson as being in Deerfield as early as 1669. He lived in a small shelter of some sort at the north end of what is now The Street, and most certainly sustained himself by tilling and planting a small piece of land.
Sheldon records that Samson Frary built a house on lot 29 across from the town common some time around 1683. This is approximately the site of the present Frary House/Barnard Tavern and future archaeology might help us to reconstruct the life and surroundings of this early Deerfield resident. Samson met his death on that terrible night in February 1704 during the French and Indian attack on Deerfield. | 
| | | | Joseph Gillett was one of the first settlers in Deerfield. He farmed a piece of land near the town common and by 1673 he and his wife Elizabeth (Hawks) had made Deerfield their home. This was a struggling New England outpost in the late 17th century and life was not easy for the young Gilletts. Many families were coming into the fertile Pioneer Valley from elsewhere in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and hard work was the common thread that held all of them together.
On a beautiful day in 1675, Joseph set out with a company of men from Deerfield to bring grain and other stores to Hadley, Massachusetts. George Sheldon records in his History of Deerfield that a band of Indians surprised the group and slaughtered almost all of them, spilling both wheat and blood into a small stream called forever after Bloody Brook. Joseph and many of the young husbands and fathers of Deerfield were killed in that attack. | 
| | | | Chester Harding was born in the neighboring town of Conway in 1792. As a boy he frequently visited his grandmother's home in Deerfield. He became a portrait painter and was well known in Boston and throughout New England.
One of his portraits, owned by Historic Deerfield, is of Asher Benjamin, the Greenfield architect credited with bringing the Greek Revival style of architecture to the New England countryside. | 
| | | | Hannah Jennings and her two small children were captured by Indians in Deerfield on a September afternoon in 1677. They were carried to Canada over 100 miles of tangled, uninhabited wilderness and probably reached the Indian village some two weeks later. While in Canada, Hannah's third child, a daughter, was born and appropriately named Captivity Jennings. Captivity returned to the Deerfield area and married Abija Bartlett of Hadley, Massachusetts. | 
| | | | Martin Kellogg was born in Deerfield in 1686 and was a youth of 18 on that awful night in February 1704 when French and Indians attacked the tiny outpost of Deerfield. Martin was taken captive and marched 100 miles to Montreal over the snowy wilderness. He was redeemed some years later and returned to Deerfield.
Martin Kellogg had a colorful career as a wilderness scout and founded many small towns and villages in rural New England. Toward the end of his life he lived in Newington, Connecticut and was a teacher of Indian boys at Mr. Isaac Hollis' School in Newington. He died in November 1753, having lived a most interesting life! | 
| | | | Susan Barker Willard was born in Deerfield on March 27, 1810. She was known as the "very lovely" daughter of the prominent Unitarian clergyman Reverend Doctor Samuel Willard, Minister of Deerfield from 1807 to 1829. Susan was named for her mother, Susan Barker, and married the educator Luther Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts. Mr. Lincoln became principal of Deerfield Academy in 1835 and he and Susan lived here in Deerfield until 1884. | | | | | Jonathan Ashley was minister of Deerfield from 1732 until his death in 1780. He was a graduate of Yale College and a very staunch Tory. His Deerfield parishioners were of mixed mind about revolution, the King and exactly what side they would take if they had to make a choice. Many openly disagreed with their stubborn pastor. Needless to say, tensions ran high in the village of Deerfield during those turbulent years of the 1770s.
Legend has it that Parson Ashley was denied his winter firewood by an irate group of parishioners who also locked him out of his Deerfield pulpit one Sunday. But nothing ever bent the willful pastor's attitude about politics or religion.
Jonathan Ashley's house stands at the north end of The Street. | 
| | | | Frances and Mary Allen were avant garde women photographers living and working in Deerfield in the early 20th century. Their photographs depict rural farm life in a perfect sort of way. Clean children, neatly stacked wood, women churning butter, quilting bees and tea parties were all among the Allen Sisters' subjects.
The softness of their photographs makes one want to have been a part of Deerfield when life was much simpler and the constant pressures of our modern life had not yet been developed. Their work is well known all over this country but loved nowhere better than here in Deerfield.
Mary and Frances Allen lived in Historic Deerfield's Allen House. | 
| | | | Lucretia Hall kept the Hall Tavern in Charlemont, Massachusetts in the early 1800s. She was a busy woman with a large family and a bustling stagecoach stop to manage. The Hall Tavern certainly afforded Lucretia little time for herself. But there must have been some moments when Lucretia Hall was not tending her tavern because Historic Deerfield owns a lovely coverlet that she embroidered in the early 19th century.
In 1950 the Hall Tavern was moved to Deerfield and is now used as a museum and Visitor Center. Lucretia's tavern and her coverlet are now a part of this historic village and on view to the public. | 
| | | | Jeremiah Dummer (1645-1718) was the first native born silversmith in America. He trained in Boston and his work was highly prized throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony. One of his most spectacular pieces is on view in the Henry Needham Flynt Silver Collection at Historic Deerfield. It is a tankard made by Dummer in the late 17th century and owned by the Williams family in Deerfield. This massive piece of silver is fashioned with all the flourish of a master craftsman.
Jeremiah Dummer is one of the many fine American and English silversmiths represented in the extensive collections of Historic Deerfield. Works by Revere, Coney, de Lamerie and Myer Myers fill the many cases and exhibition spaces of this building. | 
| | | | "Have a doughnut and coffee for breakfast, never worry about the weather, never open a window in summer or winter, and you'll live to a ripe old age." This was the motto for longevity of Deerfield's most famous character, George Sheldon.
George was a remarkable man who lived for nearly 100 years (1818-1916). He was responsible for the great interest in saving Deerfield's past that blossomed in the mid 19th century. Sheldon was a farmer in his youth but his literary inclinations and passion for the past won out and by middle age he had become an historian.
Much of the writing of George's well known History of Deerfield took place in Historic Deerfield's Sheldon-Hawks House. It was in this house that many years of work and many reams of paper finally came together as his major historical took shape. Sheldon's History was published in 1895 when he was 77.
The Sheldon-Hawks House is located at the north end of The Street. | 
| | | | Jennie Maria Arms was the second daughter of George A. Arms (who built the Deerfield Inn in 1884) and Eunice Stratton Moody. Jennie had a prominent career as a teacher and writer and is best remembered for her research on the puzzling phenomenon of the "pitted stones."
Jennie Arms returned to Deerfield in the late 1880s and married the town's well known historian George Sheldon in 1887. He was many years her senior and she became a wonderful companion and helpmate for him. Together they operated the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association's charming Memorial Hall Museum, one of America's oldest museums, still in existence today on Memorial Street.
Jennie M. Arms Sheldon was one of the village's most beloved women. To this day when Deerfield Academy students sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" they call it Mrs. Sheldon's hymn. | 
| | | | Miss Charlotte Alice Baker returned to Deerfield in 1890 to restore her family home, Historic Deerfield's Frary House. It was one of the first attempts at historic preservation of an old building in western Massachusetts and it was done by a woman. With the assistance of the Boston architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, C. Alice Baker brought life back to the old, dilapidated Frary House. When asked why she became so interested in the project, Miss Baker answered: "To save it, to dance in it, to give my mother a home in it.". | 
| | | | Rudolphus Dickinson was born in Deerfield in 1786 and graduated from Harvard College in 1805. He became a writer and minister. His earliest known books were printed by John Wilson, his brother-in-law, in his Printing Office in Deerfield. The two men were in a partnership at the press for a few years, prior to 1820.
Dickinson's interests were varied and his writings and preaching indicate his knowledge of the law, theology, history and geography. He published a geography of the world but his projected gazetteer of Massachusetts was never completed. | 
| | | | Hezekiah Wright Strong was a young lawyer who settled in Deerfield in 1794. In 1801 he bought himself a house and was married to Martha Dwight. Lawyer Strong set up his practice in an upstairs chamber of the house and painted the outside of the building a very striking sky blue. Clients and villagers certainly knew where to find Mr. Strong!
Historic Deerfield now owns Hezekiah Wright Strong's house and it is open to the public as the Wells-Thorn House. After careful paint analysis it was decided to repaint the house the original light blue to show the range of bright colors used in the early 19th century. | 
| | | | Asa Stebbins was born in Deerfield in 1767 and by the close of the 18th century was the wealthiest farmer in all of Hampshire County. Stebbins built the first brick house in Franklin County, Massachusetts in 1799 and was on the building committee for two other brick structures -- Deerfield Academy's first building (now Memorial Hall Museum) and the Brick Church.
Asa Stebbins lived very comfortably during a period of prosperity in the little village of Deerfield. He was a Massachusetts legislator and certainly came in touch with many interesting people on his trips into Boston. He also furnished his house in the latest style -- what we now call the Federal period of American decorative arts.
Visitors to Historic Deerfield can see the Asa Stebbins house as it is today -- a museum collection of handsome furniture, exquisite Chinese export porcelain and European and American glass. The house is testament to the taste and refinement of once of Deerfield's leading citizens, Asa Stebbins. | 
| | | | Joseph Goodhue Chandler was a portrait painter in the Connecticut River Valley in the early 19th century. Early in his career he painted portraits of his grandparents Dr. Joseph and Mrs. Mindwell Goodhue. These sturdy New England faces now greet visitors in the northeast chamber of the Wright House of Historic Deerfield. The portrait of Mindwell Goodhue is especially well done and captures the spirit of a New England woman who has lived a full and active life.
Visitors to the Wright House will see outstanding portraits, one of the finest Chinese export porcelain collections in America, and the George Alfred Cluett Collection of American Furniture and Clocks. | 
| | | | Mary Hoyt was born in Deerfield on June 4, 1760 and spent her childhood living in the "Old Indian House." When she was 26 years old she married William Stoddard Williams, a prominent doctor in Deerfield. He had trained in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and was well versed in modern medicine. One of their 6 children, Stephen West Williams, studied medicine with his father and inherited his Deerfield practice.
Mary Hoyt Williams is best remembered for the beautiful marriage chest made for her in 1786. This fine example of scalloped top furniture can be seen in the doctor's office of the Dwight House here in Deerfield. It sits beneath the portraits of Mary Hoyt and Williams Stoddard Williams painted by the New England artist William Jenneys. | 
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