STOCKBRIDGE  , a township of

Berkshire county, in western Massachusetts, U.S.A . Pop . (1900), 208r; (191o, U.S. census) 1933 . It comprises an area of 24 sq. m . Lake Mahkeenac, or Stockbridge Bowl, is about 2 M. north of Stockbridge village . Immediately south of the village, in a cleft in the north-western part of Bear Mountain, is Ice Glen, with caverns ice-lined even in midsummer . In the southern part of the township, on the bcundary of Great Barrington, is Monument Mountain (1710 ft.) . Stockbridge village is on the Housatonic river, about 13 M. south by east of Pittsfield, and is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by an interurban electric line . It is well known as a summer resort, with a casino and golf links, a war monument, a bell tower erected by David Dudley Field to commemorate the Indian mission, a monument in the old burial ground of the Stockbridge Indians, a public library, and the Stockbridge Academy . Jonathan Edwards (commemorated by a monument, 1871) was the pastor (1750–1758), and wrote his Freedom of the Will here; the Sedgwick mansion, the home of Theodore Sedgwick (1746–1813), is at Stockbridge; his daughter, the author, Catherine M . Sedgwick, was born (aid buried) here; and Stockbridge was the birthplace of Mark Hopkins and of Cyrus W . Field, who presented a park to the village .

The " village improvement society "

movement seems to have originated at Stockbridge in 1853 . The Stockbridge (or Muh-he-kan-ne-ok) Indians, survivors of the Mohican tribe, removed to the Housatonic Valley from the west bank of the Hudson river soon after the first white settlements were made in New York; and in 1734 a mission was established among them in what is now the township of Great Barrington by John Sergeant (1710–1749), who translated part of the Bible into their language . In 1736 a town 6 m. square (including the present Stockbridge) was laid out for them . Lands were held in severalty, the Indians were guaranteed the civil rights of whites; they had a church (under the charge of Jonathan Edwards in 1750–1758), and a school . In 1739 their township was incorporated under the name of Stockbridge, possibly adopted because of a resemblance to the country about Stockbridge, England . Many of the Indians fought on the American side in the War of Independence . In 1783–1788 nearly all of them removed to the Brother-ton settlement (established 1775), 14 M. south of what is now Utica, New York; there they built New Stockbridge . By 1829 nearly all had left New York for Wisconsin, settling near what is now South Kaukauna . By 1859 they had removed to II the reservation in Shawano county, Wisconsin, where they now live . See E . F . Jones, Stockbridge Past and Present (Springfield, 1854); and J .

N .

Davidson, Muhhekaneok: a History of the Stockbridge Indians (Milwaukee, 1863) .