FORM B – BUILDING
Assessor's number
3-26
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts State Archives Building
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
USGS Quad
Shutesbury
Town
Area(s)
Form Number
PEL.37
Pelham
Place (neighborhood or village)
Address
Photograph
(3" x 3" or 3" x 5", only black and white)
Staple onto the left side of the form. Indicate the
address of the property on the back of the photo.
Indicate the roll and film number of the negative
here on the form.
roll
1
film number
18
West Pelham
44 Amherst Road
Historic Name
Annette Morgan House
Uses: Present
Dwelling
Original
Dwelling
Date of Construction
Source
Style/Form
altered Federal cape
Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Sketch Map
Show the building’s location in relation to the
nearest cross streets and/or major natural features.
Circle and number the inventoried building.
Indicate north.
Foundation
stone
Wall/Trim
wood clapboards
Roof
asphalt shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures garage
Major Alterations (with dates)added bay window on
east (ca. 1900); front door removed (ca. 1900);
addition on west end (ca. 1900); shed roof dormer
added (ca. 1900)
Condition
good
Moved No (X) Yes ( ) Date
Recorded by Robert Lord Keyes [Historical] and
Bonnie Parsons [Architectural]
Organization
Keyes: Pelham Historical
Commission; Parsons: Pioneer Valley Planning
Commission
Date (month/day/year)
March 1, 2005
Acreage
1.24
Setting
House faces south and is set fairly
close to the well-traveled road.
BUILDING FORM
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION  see continuation sheet
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of
other buildings within the community.
One of the oldest buildings in West Pelham, this is an altered Federal style cape house
that is one-and-a-half stories in height. It has a broad, end-gable roof that is asphalt
shingle covered on which is an off-center chimney. Comparison with a ca. 1900 Howes
Brothers photograph of the building show it to have been altered considerably before and
after the photograph. Prior to the Howes Brothers photograph the owners added porches
on the east and west ends of the house: open on the west and partially enclosed on the
east. After the photograph a three-sided bay was added on the east, a two-story addition
was made on the west; the off-center door was removed together with its 6-light transom
to be replaced with a window. The house is six bays long and three bays deep. It rests
on stone foundations and is wood clapboard sided. Sash is 6/6.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE  see continuation sheet
Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history.
Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the
community.
44 Amherst Road was originally part of Home Lot No. 32 drawn by William Johnson in
1739. The first Pelham historic record identifiable as referring to 44 Amherst Road is
“Plan of a Portion of the Towns of Pelham and Amherst,” [1812], a map showing the
locations of five West Pelham residents petitioning the General Court that they be set off
to Amherst. One house, 44 Amherst Road, is that of two of the petitioners, John
Harkness, Sr. [ca. 1750-1821] and his son John Harkness, Jr. [1788-1844].
The Harkness family, from Scotland, were early residents of Pelham, constructing their
homestead at 58 Harkness Road by 1745. They were the largest landowners in West
Pelham. John Harkness, Sr. [ca. 1750-1821] was grandson of Harkness family progenitor
John Harkness [1690-1747]. John, Sr.’s father, William Harkness, Sr. [1722-1779],
owned 58 Harkness Road and it is assumed that John, Sr. was born there.
It is not known when 44 Amherst Road was built. John Harkness, Sr. may have built it
after his marriage to Keziah Edson [ca. 1755-1841] in 1781 or may have purchased it.
Probably John, Sr. and Keziah were living at 44 Amherst Road at the time of the 1790
census, which lists John Harkness, Sr. (1 male over age 16) as head of household. Other
family members in 1790 probably were: 2 males under age 16, John Harkness, Jr. [17881844] and Isaac Harkness [1782-1807]. 5 females: Keziah Edson Harkness, Polly
Harkness [Rankin] [1784-1828], Betty Harkness [b. 1786], Patty Harkness [b. 1786], and
Vesta Harkness [Wilson] [b. 1790]. John, Sr. and Keziah, in total, had eight children
between 1782 and 1801. The 1798 United States Direct Tax does list John, Sr. as owning
three farms.
John Harkness, Sr. was a miller. Paul J. Bigelow [1937-2001] writes [in 1993] that “John
Harkness added a wooden dam and a sawmill” at what became the Allen Mill [Bigelow
Mill Site A1] in 1794 [pg. 19]. A little closer to home, “John Harkness and John [Rankin]
built a sawmill at some point during the early 1790s” at Orient Springs, located at present
52 Amherst Road [Bigelow Mill Site A5] [pg. 38].
After the death of John Harkness, Sr. in 1821, 44 Amherst Road was transferred to his
sons John Harkness, Jr. [1788-1844] and William Harkness, Sr. [1793-1831]. It appears
that, shortly thereafter, William was living at 44 Amherst Road while John, Jr. was living
just up the street at 51 Amherst Road.
William’s son, Isaac Harkness [b. 1822], recalled [in a 1909 sketch map] that brothers
John, Jr. and William Harkness had a stone yard at their house at 44 Amherst Road “in
1827.” Bigelow writes [in 1993] that one of the stone quarries [which he calls the
“Harkness-Sibley-Shaw Quarry”] was located about a mile and a half east of 44 Amherst
Road. The site of this quarry, located today along the M. and M. Trail, is on Assessors
Map Plat 7, Lot 58. Isaac’s half-sister, Mary Caroline Rankin Rushmore [b. 1834],
writing about Isaac’s map in 1909, said: “He [Isaac] says John and William Harkness, his
uncle and father, were the only stone cutters in those days up to the time of his father’s
death in the early 30tys and had a yard as marked on the paper [at 44 Amherst
Road]…One of them lived in the house [44 Amherst Road] now standing near and the
other on the opposite side of the road a little farther east, now standing [i.e., at 51
Amherst Road]. The stone was brought down from the same Quarry as now used, up the
[North] valley road a mile or two, and then owned by my father.” [This quarry may have
been located north of 26 North Valley Road.]
William Harkness died in 1831. His widow, Abigail Turner Harkness [Rankin] [1793-ca.
1885] remarried. An 1837 Guardian’s Sale Notice lists the farm as having “a good house
and barn, with out-house and sheds, and is divided into mowing, pasture, tillage land,
orcharding and wood land, and has one or more good water privileges…” John Harkness,
Jr., the next resident (he may not have owned it), apparently left 51 Amherst Road and
moved into 44 Amherst Road, until 1838. John, Jr.’s son, Dr. Harvey Wilson Harkness
[b. 1821], while born at 51 Amherst Road, presumably lived with his parents at 44
Amherst Road while he was a teenager. Dr. Harkness, later a resident of Sacramento,
represented the State of California by presenting the Golden Spike at Promontory, Utah
in 1869.
In 1833, Orra White Hitchcock [1796-1863] of Amherst, wife of Amherst College
geology professor Edward Hitchcock [1793-1864], published a lithograph of Amherst as
seen from Pelham in one of her husband’s books. The scene looks as if it may have been
drawn from the hill just west of the house at 44 Amherst Road.
William Newell [1802-1878] bought 44 Amherst Road in 1837 or 1838. Tax Valuations
list Newell as owning 20 acres in the early 1840s. He apparently bought and sold some
lots, but by 1856 owned only 5 acres “with buildings.” [“1 barn” is listed beginning
1861.] Newell was born in Pelham, spent time as a journeyman shoemaker traveling as
far west as Pittsburgh. He returned to Pelham to start his own shoe business. He was
married to Chloe K. Myrick Newell [1809-1880]. They had no children. In 1840, Newell
discovered mineral amounts in the springs in a ravine located north of his house. He tried
to develop the area, which later became known as Orient Springs [52 Amherst Road,
which was part of 44 Amherst Road at the time], but fell into debt. Eventually he took a
room in Amherst and set up a shop for shoe repair. “For nineteen years,” reports the
Gazette [on Jan. 29, 1878], “he walked from his home in Pelham to Amherst, six days in
the week, in all weather, with few interruptions, from sickness or other causes; worked all
day at shoes, and then tramped home, the round trip being five miles.”
Interestingly, while William Newell was the founder of what became known as Orient
Springs—which at various times included a hotel, swimming pool, trails, and bowling
alley—it was his brother Lemuel Hall Newell [1810-1887] who founded the asbestos
mines off Gulf Road and their brother-in-law, Asahel Goodell [1810-1900], who founded
nearby Pansy Park in Belchertown, with its floral displays and flower and seed business.
These were three noted contemporary landmarks in the West Pelham-North Belchertown
area.
William and Chloe Newell had other residents at 44 Amherst Road, including Chloe’s
niece Orinda F. Aldrich Bartlett [1844-1930], as a young girl, and carpenter Dwight
Dunbar [1805-1877], in the 1860s and 1870s. Late in life, William and Chloe had
separated, William taking up residence in his shop room in Amherst. Responsibly for his
care fell upon the Pelham Selectmen and William Newell’s plight became subject of
public comment. The Gazette noted [on Jan. 29, 1878] that Chloe “chanced to have the
deed [for 44 Amherst Road] in her name” even though it was William’s “own hard
earnings” which paid for the property. William died in his Amherst room and Chloe was
vilified as being someone who was “destitute of any trace of womanly feeling, hardheaded, and cruel beyond the power to describe…”
William Newell died Jan. 15, 1878. Chloe owned 44 Amherst Road for only a short time.
In 1878, Machinist John P. Lovejoy [ca. 1817-1879] owned 44 Amherst Road and Mrs.
Gertrude Lovejoy owned it in 1879. Helen Hammersley [b. ca. 1850], a single woman
from Connecticut, was the next owner, from 1880 until 1885. Her household boarders
were Louisa Barnes, a 27-year old black servant, William Duer, Louisa’s 5 year old son,
Harriet Harris, age 17, Ada A. Brainard, age 11, and Farmer Oscar Pettengill [18531893], age 27. She had a 5 acre lot, 1 house, 1 barn, 1 horse and 1 cow. The last four
years of Hammersley’s ownership [1882-1885], she is listed as being a Hartford resident
[she had gotten married]. This suggests that 44 Amherst Road was rented during this
period.
The property was sold to Capt. Benjamin Page [1829-1913] in 1886. Page was a thirtyyear veteran of the English Army who had bought the Rankin farm on North Valley Road
in 1881. Page purchased 44 Amherst Road for his daughter Annette Sophia Page Morgan
[1854-1937], wife of Francis [Frank] Henry Morgan [ca. 1846-1892], a farmer [and later,
mechanic]. Apparently Page gave 44 Amherst Road to his daughter as part of her
inheritance, but left the deeds in the hands of a third party until after his death. The
Morgans had previously been living at 34 Amherst Road and may have been renting 44
Amherst Road from Helen Hammersley. Frank and Annette had seven children between
1877 and 1889. The Morgans added a henhouse about 1888. In 1888 they had 150 fowls.
In the summer of 1891, Frank had “improved his house and outbuilding by reshingling.”
[Gazette, July 28, 1891].
Frank Morgan died July 1, 1892. Two months earlier, the Morgans (and Captain Page)
had deeded .25 acres on the west side of the lot to the Town of Pelham for construction of
a new school house [called City School (I), today known as Community Hall, 40 Amherst
Road]. Widow Annette owned 44 Amherst Road for only about a year when the property
was transferred back to her father (or at least he paid the taxes). The last mention of the
barn had been about 1900.
Ethel Lillian Thornton Cushman [1901-1992] recalled 44 Amherst Road [in 1979]: “I
was born in the…house. That was my father’s place.” Interviewer: “I’ve heard it referred
to as the Annette Morgan place…” Cushman: “That was my grandmother’s, but it
belonged to her father, great grandpa Page before, and he gave it to my grandmother. She
was his daughter.”
44 Amherst Road was subject of a photograph by the Howes Brothers of Ashfield, ca.
Summer, 1900. The four individuals in the photograph have been identified: Charlotte
Elizabeth Isabel Morgan Anderson [b. 1875], Edith Mary Morgan Thornton [1877-1951],
Kenneth M. Thornton [1900-1984] and Nellie Louisa Shaw Esterbrook Griffin [b. 1888].
In 1912, 44 Amherst Road to Annette’s daughter Edith Mary Morgan Thornton.
Benjamin Page’s name was now replaced on the tax rolls by Edith’s. Edith was the first
wife of Milton Leroy Thornton, Sr. [1882-1963]. Edith owned 44 Amherst Road until
1964. Milton was a teamster, and by 1910, a straightener at the Montague City Fish Rod
Factory [22 Amherst Road]. Milton worked at the Fish Rod Factory for over fifty years.
They had four children. They took in family members from time to time. In 1900, Edith’s
brother, Charles Francis Morgan [1880-1936] and two sisters were living at home. They
all worked at the Fish Rod Factory. Edith’s brother, Joseph Francis Morgan [1886-1959],
shipping clerk at the Fish Rod Factory, lived at 44 Amherst Road with wife Etta Lillian
Thornton Morgan [1886-1976] in 1910. Milton and Edith’s son, Milton Leroy Thornton,
Jr. [1910-1997], was born at 44 Amherst Road.
In the 1920s, the property had four henhouses and Edith owned up to 43 fowls. In 1935,
50 Amherst Road was split off from 44 Amherst Road. Edith Thornton sold 0.44 acres to
her son Milton L. Thornton, Jr. [1910-1997] and he built a new house. In 1941, 48
Amherst Road was split off [although the house wasn’t built until 1949]. Edith sold 1
acre to her daughter, Ethel Lillian Thornton Cushman [1901-1992] and her husband,
George Merritt Cushman [1900-1985]. This left 44 Amherst Road with 3.56 acres, the
size of the lot today. Edith added a garage by 1935.
Edith Thornton died in 1951. The house eventually passed to her son, Kenneth M.
Thornton [1900-1984] and his second wife Ramona I. Crombie Thornton [1906-1966].
Kenneth was a founder of the Pelham Historical Society in 1966. The second meeting of
the Society took place at his house at 44 Amherst Road in May, 1966.
Carpenter and builder George Washington Burrows [1893-1994] recalled 44 Amherst
Road [in 1979]: “I’ve got nails, hand-made nails, that came out of that house, ‘cause I
remodeled that house some…well, 20 years ago, somewhere in that neighborhood.”
In 1971, Ernest D. May, Sr. [b. 1942] and Eileen M. May [b. 1942] were owners of 44
Amherst Road. The 1978 Street List lists seven children born between 1964 and 1973.
Ernest is a professor of Music and Dance at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Eileen was last listed in 1982. In 1990, Mary Milkey-May [b. 1955] was listed as being
Ernest’s wife. She is a teacher. A studio had been built west of the house by 1982. This
house has a striking view of Amherst.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
 see continuation sheet
Hampshire County Deeds 400-177 [1886]; 452-52 [date?]; 452-175 [1892]; 687-276
[1913]; 687-328 [1886]; 845-25 [date?]; 959-294 [ca. 1941]; 974-194 [1935]; 1431-271
[1964]; 1906-315 [date?]; 2496-277 [1984]; 4417-115 [1994]. Hampshire County Plan
Book 64-119 [1963].
Pelham Tax Valuations, Annual Reports, and Street Lists, [Town Vault, Town of Pelham;
and History Room, Pelham Free Public Library].
United States, Massachusetts and Maine, Direct Tax of 1798, [Microfilm at University of
Massachusetts-Amherst Library, Microfilm 4778, Reel Vol. 16, pp. 356-375].
“Plan of a Portion of the Towns of Pelham and Amherst,” [Map, 1812], [Map 2622 at
Massachusetts Archives, Boston; copy at Special Collections, Jones Library, Amherst].
Harkness, Isaac, “Location of Brick Yard and Stone Quarry,” [Map of East Amherst and
West Pelham in year 1927, 1909], [original map in Amherst College Archives];
[reprinted in “Treasures of Pelham,” (Pelham, MA: Treasures of Pelham Committee,
1968), pg. 30].
Rushmore, Mary Caroline Rankin, Dec. 28, 1909 Letter to Dr. [M. R.?] Hitchcock,
[Amherst College Archives].
Hampshire County Commissioners, “Record Book,” Vol. 3, Pg. 30.
Bigelow, Paul, “Wrights and Privileges, The Mills and Shops of Pelham, Massachusetts,
from 1740 to 1937,” [Athol, MA: Haley’s, 1993], pp. 18, 19, 34-37, 39.
Bigelow, Paul J., “The Stone Quarry Industry [of] Pelham, Massachusetts,” [Pelham,
MA: Privately printed, 1998], pp. 18-20, 26.
Parmenter, C[harles] O[scar], “History of Pelham,” [Amherst, MA: Carpenter and
Morehouse, 1898], pp. 24, 25, 30, 31, 223A, 246, 421-422, 497.
Pelham Vital Records, [Town Clerk’s Office, Town of Pelham].
Federal Census, 1790-1930. Massachusetts State Census, 1855 and 1865.
Board of Assessors, Town of Pelham, Real Estate Maps, December, 1963.
Board of Assessors, Town of Pelham, Revaluation Card, 44 Amherst Road, 1982.
Mortgage Book, Town of Pelham, Vol. 2, 1858-1892, pp. 513-517, 519-520, [Copy in
Town Vault].
Maps of Pelham: 1854 Scott and McLearn; 1856 Whitlock; 1860 Walling; and 1873
Beers, [Copies in History Room, Pelham Free Public Library].
Allen, Henry W., “Life in West Pelham, Massachusetts from 1892 to 1918, [Ms., 1976],
[Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public Library].
Burrows, George W., Oral History, 1979, [Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public
Library].
Cushman, Ethel, Oral History, 1979, [Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public
Library].
Aldrich, Kenneth R., Personal Recollections, to Robert Lord Keyes, Aug. 12, 2003.
Keyes, Pearly P., Jr., Personal Recollections, to Robert Lord Keyes, May 19, 2004.
Keyes, Robert Lord, “Harkness Family of Pelham, Mass.,” [Ms., 1992].
Longsworth, Polly, “The World of Emily Dickinson,” [New York: W. W. Norton, 1990],
pg. 5.
Howes Brothers, 44 Amherst Road, Pelham, Mass., [photograph, n.d., ca. Summer,
1900], [photograph no. 3056E, Ashfield Historical Society, Ashfield, Mass.], [Copy
identified by Kenneth M. Thornton, in History Room, Pelham Free Public Library].
Amherst Record, May 12, 1966.
Northampton Courier, Nov. 26, 1834; Feb. 15 and April 19, 1837; Feb. 13 and 27, 1844.
[Northampton, MA] Hampshire County Journal, March 13, 1886.
[Northampton, MA] Hampshire Gazette and Northampton Courier, Jan. 29, 1878; July
28, 1891.
[Northampton, MA] Daily Hampshire Gazette, Jan. 4, 1937.
Keyes, Robert Lord, 40 South Valley Road, Pelham, MA 01002, Pelham, Massachusetts
History Project: Genealogical and Historical Research.
Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you
must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Address
State Archives Facility
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
Community
Pelham
Property
44 Amherst Road
Area(s) Form No.
PEL.37
National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form
Check all that apply:
Individually eligible
Eligible only in an historic district
Contributing to a potential historic district
Potential historic district
Criteria:
A
Criteria Considerations:
B
C
A
D
B
C
D
E
F
G
Statement of Significance by ___Bonnie Parsons________________________________
The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.
This property contributes to the potential West Pelham Historic District. The district is
significant according to criteria A and C and it has local significance. West Pelham is
significant as the site of 18th century settlement at four mill sites, one of which exists
today, and for its association with events of Shays’s Rebellion after the Revolutionary
War.
West Pelham, known during the late 19th and early 20th century as “Pelham City”
represents a 19th century agricultural and light industrial village that superceded Pelham
Center as the town center due to the long term success of its industry attracting and
sustaining workers and to its development in the early 20th century as a suburban area for
population spillover from Amherst, long a college town and intellectual center of the
region. A late 19th century resort destination, West Pelham is also important as it retains
a building from this era, and from the resort Orient Springs.
The district retains buildings from its 19th century agricultural, resort and industrial past
as well as from its early 20th century suburban phase, which continues to the present.
There are fine examples of Federal and Greek Revival farmsteads. With a Queen Anne
store and single and double houses from the Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles applied to bungalow, cape and Four-square forms - the district’s stylistic range as a home
to workers and suburban commuters is exemplary.