It Happened Here -- The Town that Made a Name for Itself

Co. Rte. 24, Red Rock

 Marker of the Week  (Last week's post featured no Marker of the Week, so this week we will devote our whole post to this one marker.)

New York State Historical Markers have a fascination for me, in part, because they often call attention to an historic person or event but usually don't explain the event or the importance of that person, "begging the question..." or enticing the reader to want to find out more.  (Perhaps this is why I find the large Thruway rest stop type of State Historical Markers signs less interesting because they usually do a nice job of succinctly explaining the history and relevance of  their subject matters.)  In contrast, a marker like this gives the reader very little and might have very well escaped my attention, except for the curious name "Pilfershire".

About 1750, as the sign says, the first settlers arrived in this area. They settled along the Indian Creek, so named because it served as a summer encampment for groups of Stockbridge Indians who would continue for many years to camp in the vicinity and sell the settlers reed baskets they made.

Like many of the isolated settlements in the colonial northeast it was visited occasionally by travelling peddlers. A year or two after the first settlers had arrived a peddler by the name of Silvanius Cunningham came to town. Something spooked his horse.  The horse bolted, upsetting his cart and scattering his merchandise which included tinware, jewelry, dry goods, papers containing needles, spools of thread and wooden spoons over a wide area.  The residents turned out to rein in and sooth his frightened horse and help the peddler recover his scattered inventory.  At first, the peddler was grateful for the help but when he took stock of his goods he realized a lot of it was missing. Angrily he declared the settlement was a town of "meddlers and thieves" and denounced the town wherever he travelled, calling it "Pilfershire."  The name stuck, much to the chagrin of the townspeople, and the continuing amusement of residents of Canaan and Austerlitz.

For some 75 years the residents of the hamlet harbored resentment against the name until a general store was built and residents found a forum to express their dissatisfaction. In 1825 storekeeper Ezra Park led the movement to change the community's name.  For several Fridays members of the  community met at the local schoolhouse to discuss names. Residents agreed that the name should reflect some prominent natural feature of the community, and one natural feature stood out,  a large glacial boulder deposited from the Green Mountains that lay between the creek and the road to Austerlitz and Canaan. Several names were proposed, including Gray Rock, Spring Rock and Fern Cliff.  Someone proposed the name Red Rock, noting that some parts of the rock had a slight reddish hue.

Red Rock or Red Paint?

People agreed they liked the name, but there was that one problem--the rock wasn't all that red!  Park suggested an obvious solution.  Within the year, the community gathered at the rock with buckets of dark red (barn?) paint and a wooden column was erected on top of it declaring this was the community of Red Rock. The storekeeper supplied belts for the girls and hats for the boys proclaiming the town's new name.

Every dozen years or so the community would gather for a "painting day",  a picnic and community games. This tradition continued until at least 1899.  It would be many years until the community received official recognition when a Red Rock Post Office was established.

Co. Rte 24, about 1 Mile East of NYSHM

In 1860, Elias Bostwick, a resident, headed up a movement to replace the wooden column with a marble one.  Advertisements were printed up in local papers;  A local congressman, Charles L. Beale was invited as an orator; a local band was hired; volunteer fire companies from nearby communities paraded; and the community was invited to an ox roast.

In 1953 some "newcomers" suggested perhaps the hamlet should revert to it old name. A flurry of letters to the editor in the Chatham Courier ensued. When the dust settled the town that made a name for itself was still Red Rock.¹

                                      

1The Chatham Courier has published stories on Red Rock and its origins every dozen years or so. Recently a clipping on the naming of Red Rock written in 1901 by Mary Y. Patterson was sold on Ebay. Though the source was not listed, it appears, from the context of the article, to have been from a Massachusetts Berkshire paper, probably the Berkshire Eagle.