History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

500 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY,
great weight on the other side ; but now, the great
superiority in number against them caused them to
despair of success from their exertions, and in most
cases tliey were inactive." He was afterwards a
captain in the military service of the crown. He
was chosen chairman of the delegates from Pitts-
field to the Constitutional Convention of 1779.
He was tlie earliest recorded preserver of the old
elm of Pittsfield Common, saving it wiien a "staddle"
from the axe' of one of his laborers when his
workmen were clearing his land.
He was married three times ; first to Miss
Miriam Tyler, second to Miss Wells, and third to
Hannah Dickinson. He died April 5, 1784-, aged
eigiity-three years, and a monument to his memory
stands in the new cemetery of Pittsfield.
Nathan Fiske, born September 9, 1733, gradu-
ated at Harvard College in 1754, in the same class
witii John Hancock. He received the honorary
degree of D. D. in 1792. He was settled as the
pastor of tiie Third Church in Brookfield, May 28,
1758. He died November 24, 1799. His deatli
was very sudden. He preaclied on tlie Sabbath
from Proverbs iv. 18, "The path of tlie right-
eous is as the shining light," and died that night
in his bed. "He was a critical and learned
scholar, though not a popular preaciier." He
wrote a number of papers for the Massachitselk
Spy, Massachusetts Magazine, and The Philati-
th rapist. He published in 1775 a sermon on the
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