The first settler in Rowe was Reverend Cornelius Jones from
Sandisfield. About 1770 he came into possession of a tract of land four miles
square bounded on the north by the Province of Vermont. Jones and his
family decided to settle there and build a house, and eventually a church.
Reverend Jones was a Harvard graduate with considerable business
ability. He offered his lands at low prices to induce others to come and
settle. Among them were Jonathan Lamb, Artemus Ward, Michael Wilson, Henry
Gleason, Archibald and Joseph Thomas, John Humphrey and William Taylor.
This tract went for a number of years by the name of Myrifield or
My-rye-field, which is said to have originated from Reverend Jones' liking
for brown bread. The town was incorporated in 1785 under the name Rowe, in
honor of wealthy Boston merchant John Rowe.
In 1882, the part of town lying west of the Deerfield River was
incorporated into the town of Monroe, and since then Rowe has been expanded by
the annexation of an unincorporated tract called Zoar.
Wooden bowls, designed for washing gold, were made in Rowe and shipped
west during the gold rush. In the early 1880's, large deposits of iron
pyrites were used for the manufacture of sulphuric acid. H.J. Davis secured the
control of the deposits, and the Davis Mine was the town's major business
enterprise until closing around 1911 because of serious cave-ins.
The Yankee Atomic Electric Power Station, which was one of the
nation's first major commercial nuclear power plants, was built in 1961 and
operated for 30 years before shutting down. The Bear Swamp Hydro-electric
Project was built in Monroe and neighboring Florida more than 20 years ago. |
