TOWN OF NEW ASHFORD, BERKSHIRE COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS

New Ashford is a small farming town of mountainous, wild and broken land, presenting much beautiful scenery, situated in the northwestern part of Berkshire County, about 130 miles from Boston. The long mountain ridge of which Greylock, at the northeast angle, is the highest summit, separates it from the valley of the Housatonic and its railroad on the east, so that the nearest railroad stations are the Fitchburg in Williamstown, eight miles north, and the Boston and Albany at Pittsfield, 12 miles south. Williamstown bounds it on the north, Adams and Cheshire on the east, Lanesborough on the south, and Hancock on the west. The assessed area is 7,570 acres, including 3,917 acres of forest, consisting of maple, beech and birch. Sugar Loaf Mount, south of the centre, is the most notable eminence in the town; and on the western border are the outposts of the Taconic range. Marble and calcareous schist abound, and have been quarried. There is in this town a cave 130 feet in length, with some apartments 20 feet in height, glittering with stalactites. The Green River, which flows north to the Hoosac River, rises in the northern section of this town; and in the southern part an affluent of the Housatonic has its source. The town abounds in springs and trout brooks.

The 30 farms in 1885 yielded products to the value of $32,087. Much charcoal is made, and there is one saw mill. The population was 163, including 47 legal voters. The valuation m 1858 was $82,695, with a tax-rate of $14 on $1,000. The dwelling-houses numbered 37. There were two public school-houses and a Methodist church. The place was incorporated as a district February 26, 1781, and as a town February 6, 1801. The village and post-office is New Ashford, at the centre.

pp. 487-488 in Nason and Varney's Massachusetts Gazetteer, 1890