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Otis
Massachusetts, 1890
Otis
is a picturesque, sparsely inhabited town of the highlands, situated
in the northeastern part of the southern half of Berkshire County,
128 miles west of Boston. ts nearest railway station is on the
Boston and Albany Railroad, in Becket, which bounds it on the
north. Blandford forms the eastern boundary, Tolland and Sandisfield
the southern, and Monterey and Tyringham the western. The assessed
area is 21,312 acres, including 8,916 acres of forests, composed
chiefly of beech, maple and pine. Except in the northeast, there
are few extended areas unbroken by hills; and a large part of
the open land is too rough for tillage, but excellent for pasturage.
Tilley's Mountain, somewhat north of Otis centre, is the highest
elevation. The principal rock is calcareous gneiss. The soil is
generally a dark loam. Farmington River runs medially through
the town southeastward, affording, with its tributaries, numerous
small powers. There are many beautiful lakes dispersed over the
town. Great Pond, Reservoir, and Cold Spring ponds, containing
altogether many hundreds of acres, have an outlet in the southern
part of the town, on which is a fine cascade known as " Otis
Falls." There are four lumber mills, a rake factory and the
common mechanical shops of a rural town. The goods made in 1885
were valued at $21,493. The product of the 145 farms amounted
to $79,554. The population was 703; of whom 190 were legal voters.
The valuation in 1888 was $219,173, with a tax-rate of $15 on
$1,000. The taxed dwelling-houses were 175 in number.
There
were eight public school-houses, valued at nearly $3,000. The
churches are Episcopal, Congregational and Second Advent, —
one of each. The post-offices are Otis and West Otis. East Otis
and Cold Spring are the other villages. The town furnished 99
soldiers to the Union armies during the late war, of whom 14 were
lost.
This
town, first called "Tyringham Equivalent," and, later,
"Loudon," was settled anterior to 1760 by David Kibbe,
Daniel Gregory, Jeremy Stow and others; and the vote to build
the first school-house was taken in 1774. The place was incorporated
June 13, 1810, when the name was changed to Otis, in honor of
Harrison Gray Otis. A church was organized in 1779, but
no house of worship erected until 1813.
Pp.
526-527 in Nason and Varney's Massachusetts Gazetteer, 1890
Note:
Bethlehem was incorporated as a district, June 24, 1789; and united
with Loudon to form the town of Otis, on June 19, 1809
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