TYRINGHAM — The Stedman Rake Factory here, powered more than a century by water wheels in Hop Brook, until a diesel engine was installed in 1947, finally has turned to electricity.
With installation by the Western Massachusetts Electric Co. of a new 120-208 three-phase cable into the valley, the old mill is giving up most of its belts and pullies for electric motors. Except for a series of small machines along one bench, each unit has its own source of power.
The mill is the lone survivor of several that during the early 1800s were strung out along Hop Brook. The Stedman mill pond lasted until the August flood of 1955 washed out the mill dam.
Though the business is still known as the Stedman Rake Factory, it now turns out thousands of ladder rungs as well as rakes each year, and is no longer owned by the Stedman family.
In 1943, Mrs. Eloise Myers of Lee, daughter of the late Marshall W. Stedman, sold the business to Earl C. Beauregard of Blandford. Mr. Beauregard sold the mill to the present owner, Robert E. Ezequelle of North Plain Road, Housatonic.
First Stedman in Tyringham was Capt. Thomas Stedman, who came to the valley in the late 1700s with his brother-in-law, Thomas Williams. They came from Rhode Island, where the family was in the coastal trade, shipping produce from Narragansett across the bay to Newport.
Capt. Stedman returned to Rhode Island, staying until the sea claimed a member of his family. He came back to Tyringham with his wife and daughter, carrying the latter in a kerchief around his neck.
The family settled on what is now Webster Road on East Mountain and turned to farming. Capt. Stedman made all his own agricultural tools from the wood harvested from the hillsides.
His son, William, established a rake factory at Sodom on Hop Brook in 1827. At that time, it was the most modern rake factory in Western Massachusetts.
Besides several rake factories, Tyringham at that time is reported to have had seven saw mills, two grist mills, several shingle mills, three small woolen mills, two taverns and four stores, as well as several shops in the now defunct Fernside Shaker Colony.
The town also had a reported population of 1,600. During the state census two years ago, the town had a population of only 126.
This Story in History is selected from the archives by Jeannie Maschino, The Berkshire Eagle.
