Berkshire County, Massachusetts GenWeb Project

Monterey is a mountainous farming town in the midst of the southern section of Berkshire County. It is bounded on the north by Tyringham, east by Otis, south by Sandisfield and New Marlborough, and west by Great Barrington. The assessed area is 15,504 acres; and there are 3,524 acres of woodland.
The northern third of the town, having the form of a wide angle, is occupied by a very elevated plateau. Chestnut Hill is a beautiful eminence in the southeast corner. Brewer's Pond, of 250 acres, near this hill, and Six-mile Pond, of 344 acres, in the extreme southwest, add greatly to the beauty of the landscape. Hop Brook, rising in the highlands in the north, is so named from the wild hops that grow upon its banks. Rawson's Brook and the outlets of the ponds are affluents of Farmington River, and furnish motive power for two saw mills and a grist mill in the southern part of the town.
Carriages and wagons, lumber, various iron goods and boots and shoes constitute the manufactures; whose aggregate value for 1885 was $9,013. The aggregate product of the 133 farms was $96,668. The population was 571, of whom 159 were legal voters. The valuation in 1888, was $224,785, with a tax-rate of $15 on $1,000. The number of taxed dwelling-houses was 130.
There were six public school-houses, valued at upwards of $3,000. There is one church - Congregationalist,- founded in 1750. The nearest railroad station is on the Housatonic Railroad at Great Barrington, ten miles distant. Monterey sent 71 soldiers into the Union army in the late war, of whom 15 died in the service.
This town was taken from Tyringham, and incorporated April 12, 1847; taking its name from the city in Mexico where our army gained a signal victory in September, 1846. In 1851, certain territory was annexed from New Marlborough.