FORM B – BUILDING
Assessor's number
3-21
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts State Archives Building
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
USGS Quad
Shutesbury
Town
roll
1
Form Number
PEL.46
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.
Area(s)
West Pelham
76 Amherst Road
Historic Name
Uses: Present
Dwelling
Original
Dwelling
Date of Construction
Source
film number
7
Style/Form
Federal
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 clapboard
Roof asphalt shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
Major Alterations (with dates)
Condition
excellent
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
8.60
Setting
House faces south at bottom of steep
hill 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.
This is one of West Pelham’s most interesting Federal style houses, and it is the best
example of the raised cape with the attic level “knee-high” windows. The house at 87
Amherst Road is a second example, but there the “knee high” windows appear only on a
secondary elevation. This was a design that began during the Federal period but became
very popular during the subsequent Greek Revival period, and this clapboard-covered
house shows transitional features between the two styles. The house is one-and-a-half
stories in height under an asphalt shingled, end-gable roof with two interior chimneys, a
Federal feature. The main block is five bays wide and two bays deep. There is a onestory kitchen ell on the west, which is two bays wide, followed by a one-story woodshed
and an attached garage. In addition to the pair of chimneys, the house has a Federal entry
that is tall and narrow, and first floor windows evenly spaced over its elevation with drip
edge lintels. Sash is now 6/1, but would originally have been 6/6 and ca. 1890 was 2/2,
according to a Howes Brothers photograph. More Greek Revival in style are the
relatively wide cornerboards, the “knee-high” windows with fixed three lights, and the
eaves returns. The slight overhang of the trabeated door surround is also a Greek Revival
feature. Foundations are stone.
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.
76 Amherst Road was originally part of Lot 59-3 [59th lot in the third division] drawn by
Thomas Lowden in 1739. Lowden was a cooper from Leicester. The first Pelham historic
record identifiable as referring to 76 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, 76
Amherst Road, is that of Capt. Isaac Otis, Sr. [1752-1838].
Isaac Otis, Sr. was living in West Pelham as early as 1807, at age 55, with his second
wife Elizabeth [Betsey] Briggs Hopkins Otis. The Gazette and Courier wrote [in 1884]
that “Mr. Otis…lived near the foot of what is called Thornton hill, formerly Otis hill.”
Isaac Otis, Sr. was listed as head of household on the Federal Census of 1810. Identities
of residents may have been: (1) 1 male age 10 to 16: son Galen Otis [b. 1799], (2) 1 male
16 to 26: son Isaac Otis, Jr. [1788-ca. 1860], (3) 1 male over age 45: Capt. Isaac Otis, Sr.,
(4) 1 female 10 to 16: daughter Almira Otis [Carmichael] [1801-1831], (5, 6) two females
16-26: daughters Betsy Otis [Smith] [1796-1884], Ruth Otis [Logue] [1791-ca. 1871], or
Lucy Otis [Ward] [1793-1823], and (7) 1 female over age 45: Elizabeth [Betsey] Briggs
Hopkins Otis.
Isaac Otis, Sr.’s son, Isaac Otis, Jr. [1788-ca. 1860], married Tryphena Smith [17931858] and had two children in Pelham, in 1813 and 1814. Both families, Isaac, Sr. and
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
Isaac, Jr., moved on first to Walkill, N.Y., then to Otisville, N.Y. Isaac Otis, Jr. had nine
more children between 1817 and 1838 in New York State and in Pennsylvania.
Isaac Otis, Jr.’s son, William Smith Otis [1813-1839], born at 76 Amherst Road in
Pelham, was the inventor of the steam shovel, in Philadelphia in 1835, at the age of 22.
William Otis died in Westfield at age 26 in 1839 before seeing the success of his
revolutionary invention. At the time of his birth, William Otis had been delivered by
Pelham native Dr. Isaac Guernsey Cutler [1782-1834], the same physician who later
delivered Emily Dickinson.
Isaac Otis, Sr.’s daughter Betsey Otis Smith [1796-1884] [see above] remained in Pelham
until her death in 1884. She was mother-in-law of Union Pacific Railroad president
Sidney Dillon [b. 1812].
Isaac Otis, Sr. had “a mill or shop…for the manufacture of scythes and there was a small
foundry connected where small cast iron articles for household use were turned out,”
writes C. O. Parmenter [pg. 241]. The mill was located on the present Orient Springs [52
Amherst Road] property [Bigelow Mill Site A-5].
In 1815, Isaac Otis, Sr. “sold his land and shop to the Douglas Cotton Manufacturing
Company …The sale included forty acres of land, a building, and a blacksmith shop…”
according to Paul J. Bigelow [1937-2001] [pg. 40]. Bigelow speculated that the Cotton
Manufacturing Company, from Douglas, Mass., may have “used the Otis site for the
manufacturer of machinery and then shipped the finished product back to Douglas.”
Levi Newell [1770-1844] appears to have owned 76 Amherst Road by about 1818.
Newell was a farmer who came to Pelham from Cumberland, R.I. with other family
members by 1799. The original Pelham settlers, the Scotch-Irish who came to Pelham
from Worcester after 1738, were being replaced by settlers from Plymouth County,
Massachusetts and the Blackstone River Valley in Massachusetts and Rhode Island after
the Revolution. Levi Newell kept an account book from 1806 to 1833.
Levi Newell was husband of Caroline Matilda Ballou Newell [ca. 1774-1846] and was
father of three children. Bigelow writes that Lyman Draper [b. 1799], Newell’s former
son-in-law, “sold Levi Newell the westerly part of the farm he had bought from the
Douglas firm” in 1837 [Bigelow, pg. 41]. Census records for Newell’s household in
1820, 1830 and 1840 show 1 male and 1 female each year, with 1 female age 5-10 in
1830 and 1 male 10-15 in 1840. Pelham Tax Valuations list details beginning 1831. In
1831, Levi has 35 acres, 1 cow, 2 two year olds, 1 yearling, 3 sheep and 1 swine.
Levi Newell died in 1844. John Dickinson of Amherst next appears as owner of 76
Amherst Road [“Newell farm”] in 1856. The farm is listed at 20 acres, 1 house and 1
barn. As Dickinson was a non-resident landowner, 76 Amherst Road must have been
rented. Levi Hancock was resident at least between 1852 and 1854 [although he appears
on the Pelham Tax Valuations]. Laborer Horace Squires [b. ca. 1804] was resident at 76
Amherst Road in 1860. Horace and wife Susan Squires [b. ca. 1805] had a family of 4
children. They owned a cow and a pig.
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
In 1863, Dickinson sold 76 Amherst Road to carpenter Francis [Frank] Alonzo Latham
[b. 1829]. In 1865, he was residing with his wife, Mary Jane Thompson Latham [b. ca.
1832], sons Merrick Latham [b. 1852] and George A. Latham [b. 1860], and Mary Jane’s
uncle George Thompson [ca. 1810-1878]. Frank had 1 cow, 1 horse, and 1 yearling. The
farm had 1 house, 1 barn, and 20 acres. Frank was a chorister who held a singing school
at the West Pelham Methodist Church in the winter of 1864. In 1866 uncle George
Thompson owned 76 Amherst Road for a year.
Stone Mason Jesse F. Lesure [ca. 1805-1892] purchased 76 Amherst Road in 1867. Jesse
Lesure was husband of Mary Moody Lesure [1810-1890]. They had an adopted daughter,
Lucy M. Gibbs Lesure Holt [ca. 1855-1885]. They lived at 76 Amherst Road until 1885.
In 1892, after Mary Lesure’s death, Jesse Lesure became a town pauper in Pelham. When
he died on Dec. 20, 1892, his funeral expenses were paid by Pelham. Expenses included
the payment of $1 to Ed Shaw for digging Jesse Lesure’s grave.
Edward Josiah Shaw [1855-1927] was, in fact, the next owner of 76 Amherst Road, in
1886. Shaw was born and raised at 42 South Valley Road in Pelham. In 1881, he married
his first cousin, Lizzie A. Hannum [b. ca. 1856]. They had two daughters, Mabel
Elizabeth Shaw Pond [b. 1883] and Ada May Shaw [ca. 1885-1887]. Ed and Lizzie Shaw
separated at some point. Lizzie was living at 76 Amherst Road in 1900 for a time without
Ed. Ed Shaw was then at the Northampton Insane Asylum. He later became a town
pauper. Pearl P. Keyes, Sr. [1891-1982] recalled Ed Shaw in 1982: “He was, you might
say, different…He lived by himself. He lived alone. I swear I don’t know how he made a
living.” Ed Shaw was a farmer, worked on the highways, and did wood chopping.
In 1889, the house was given as “brown.” About 1900, 76 Amherst Road was subject of a
photograph by the Howes Brothers of Ashfield. Lizzie Shaw may be the woman shown in
the photograph.
In 1912, Ed Shaw’s brother, George P. Shaw [1859-1912], murdered his wife, them blew
himself up with dynamite at 42 South Valley Road. Walter Scott Aldrich, Jr. [b. 1924]
was told that Ed Shaw was present when the coroner was picking up the body pieces. Ed
picked up George’s head and said, “You really showed them, George!” The coroner
yelled at Ed to stop it “or I’ll put you back in the nut house!”
Clarence H. Mitchell [1909-2002] recalled “the Hermit” Ed Shaw who would make bean
poles which he sold. George Washington Burrows [1893-1994] used to go snake hunting
with Shaw. Daniel H. Allen [1904-1989] remembers the Shaws as being “rough living
men.” At the same time, Paul H. Campbell, Sr. [1898-1992] recalled that Ed Shaw was
one of the “nicest” men he ever me. An uncredited photograph of Ed Shaw with two oxen
pulling a wagon full of goods appears on page 204a [“To the Cider Mill”] of Parmenter’s
“History of Pelham.”
Ed Shaw owned 76 Amherst road until his death in 1927, and his heirs until 1933. The
property was still 20 acres. A henhouse appears by 1892. In 1895, he had 20 fowls and a
yearling. Occasionally, he would have a horse, a cow, and sometimes a pig.
Louis Guyotte [1862-1946] was a 73 year old farmer when he moved from 24 Cook Road
as new owner of 76 Amherst Road in 1934.Guyotte was husband of Bridget Agnes
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
Donahue Guyott [1866-1944] and had several grown children in 1934. Guyotte was
second generation French Canadian. As such, he represented a minority population that
had come to Pelham via such Massachusetts mill cities as Springfield, Holyoke and South
Hadley after the Civil War. 3 ½ acres of 76 Amherst Road were not sold by the Shaw
heirs to the Guyottes, so the property stood at 16 ½ acres in 1943 when the Guyottes sold
to the Wards and moved to Amherst.
Donald Granville Ward [b. 1920] and Ethel F. Yarter Ward [1918-2001] owned 76
Amherst Road from 1944 until 1950 when they built 33 Amherst Road. In 1944, Albert
Ernest Lumley [1902-1981] moved the barn at 76 Amherst Road to his lot at 24 Harkness
Road. [This may have been the same barn shown in the ca. 1900 Howes Brothers
photograph?] Donald’s sister, Alice Louise Ward Campbell [b. 1926], and her husband,
Roland Arthur Campbell [b. 1925], lived with the Wards for a time, in a small apartment,
at 76 Amherst Road in the 1940s.
John R. Walker [1918-2003] and Mary F. Cronk Walker [b. 1921] purchased 76 Amherst
Road in 1950. They had three sons and two daughters. A veteran of World War II, John
Walker eventually became director of greenhouses for many years at Mount Holyoke
College in South Hadley. He also taught botany and floriculture. He was active in Pelham
affairs, including service with the Planning Board, the Lions Club, the Historical Society
and the building committee of the Community Center, all in Pelham. This writer recalls
taking part in Cub Scout den meetings sponsored by Mary Walker at 76 Amherst Road in
the early 1960s. The Walkers had sold 7.4 acres by 1966 and the lot is presently 8.6
acres. In 1968, a fire cost more than $15,000 damage to the house. The Walkers entered
into a life estate with their children in 2002. John Walker died in 2003.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
 see continuation sheet
Hampden County Deed Y-750 [1757].
Hampshire County Deeds 31-513 [1810]; 38-432 [1814]; 38-434 [1815]; 81-390 [1837];
234-367 [date?]; 692-33 [1913];1072-437 [date?]; 1341-75 [1960]; 1478-186 [1966];
6709-237 [2002]. Hampshire County Plan Book 59-36 [1960]; 59-37 [1960]; 59-38
[1960]; 73-11 [1968].
Pelham Tax Valuations, Annual Reports, and Street Lists, [Town Vault, Town of Pelham;
and History Room, Pelham Free Public Library].
“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].
Parmenter, C[harles] O[scar], “History of Pelham,” [Amherst, MA: Carpenter and
Morehouse, 1898], pp. 17, 24, 25, 30, 31, 204a, 241, 435-437; 460a.
Pelham Vital Records, [Town Clerk’s Office, Town of Pelham].
Federal Census, 1810-1930. Massachusetts State Census, 1865.
Board of Assessors, Town of Pelham, Revaluation Card, 76 Amherst Road, 1982.
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
Financial Journal, 1880-1911, Town of Pelham, Entry of Jan. 4, 1893, [Copy in Town
Vault, Town of Pelham].
Maps of Pelham: 1854 Scott and McLearn; 1856 Whitlock; 1860 Walling; and 1873
Beers, [Copies in History Room, Pelham Free Public Library].
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. 38-41.
Allen, Daniel H., Oral History, 1979, [Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public
Library].
Aldrich, Walter Scott, Jr., Personal Recollections, Sept. 2, 2001, to Robert Lord Keyes.
Burrows, George W., Oral History, 1979, [Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public
Library].
Campbell, Paul H., Jr., Oral History, 1979, [Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public
Library].
Cutler, Dr. Isaac G., List of Births Attended, [Ms., 1805-1833], [Special Collections,
Jones Library, Amherst, MA].
Hanscom, Linda Lee Campbell, Personal Recollections, July 25, 2003, to Robert Lord
Keyes.
Keyes, Pearl P., Sr., Oral History, 1980, [Copy in History Room, Pelham Free Public
Library].
Keyes, Pearly P., Jr., Personal Recollections, May 19, 2004.
Mitchell, Clarence, Personal Recollections, May 14, 1992, to Robert Lord Keyes.
Newell, Levi, Account Book, 1806-1833, [Ms.], [Special Collections, Jones Library,
Amherst, MA].
Otis, William A., “A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in
America,” [Chicago: n.p., 1924], pp. 146, 211-214; 347-348. [Copy in History Room,
Pelham Free Public Library].
Walker, John, Personal Recollections, Aug. 23, 2000, to Robert Lord Keyes.
Howes Brothers, 76 Amherst Road, Pelham, Mass., [photograph, n.d., ca. 1900],
[Photograph No. 3060D, Ashfield Historical Society, Ashfield, Mass.]
Amherst Record, Nov. 20, 1968.
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
Northampton Daily Herald, Dec. 22, 1885.
[Northampton, MA] Hampshire County Journal, July 27, 1889.
[Northampton, MA] Hampshire Gazette and Northampton Courier, March 29, 1864; June
17, 1884.
Springfield Republican, Nov. 1, 1903; Nov. 12, 1939.
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.
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Address
State Archives Facility
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
Community
Pelham
Property
76 Amherst Road
Area(s) Form No.
PEL.46
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’ 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 houses, Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles applied to bungalow, cape and
Four-square house forms, the district’s stylistic range as a home to workers and suburban
commuters is exemplary.
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.