urses of these timbers laid edgewise one above another,
each being doweled to the one below by red oak dowel-pins, two of which
were pulled out of their quiet resting places of 141 years' duration, in
a good state of preservation, by Mr. Maxwell and the writer, Sept. 5,
1885. Those ends of these timbers that came to the four corners of the
fort were dove-tailed into each other in the well known manner, so that
there were straight lines and strong locking at the corners; and it so
happens, that three of the six timbers preserved are corner timbers, and
show at one end the exact mode of locking.

There were two mounts on two corners of the fort 12 feet square and 7
feet high; and the houses and barracks within the fort were 11 feet wide
with shingled roofs; and the mount-timber, the insides of the houses,
and the floors, were all hewn, presumably of the same width and
thickness as the wall-timbers. Undoubtedly the whole parade in the
middle of the fort was also floored in the same way, as the site of the
fort was and is low and wet.

The fort was built in this manner during the months of August,
September, and October, 1744; and on the 30th of the last mentioned
month, Capt. Williams commenced to billet himself and the soldiers under
his command at the fort. He remained there all the winter and spring;
about the 1st of March he enlisted 14 of his men for the Louisburg
Expedition, at Col. Stoddard's request, whom he took to Boston; but was
not himself allowed to embark, and returned to his fort; while later in
the season, under a strong call for reinforcements for Louisburg by
Gov. Shirley, Williams took 74 able bodied men to Boston, recruited by
himself in less than six days mostly in the Connecticut valley, and was
given a Lieutenant colonel's commission in the regiment destined for
Louisburg commanded by Col. John Choate. They sailed in June, 1745, but
the fortress had been taken before they arrived, and the regiment with
Williams as acting Colonel was detained there to do garrison duty.

Fort Pelham in Rowe was built by Williams before he left for Louisburg,
that is, in the spring of 1745; and in the autumn of that year we find
Capt. Ephraim Williams, a kinsman of the other, afterwards founder of
Williams College, in command of Fort Shirley and of the line of forts.
It is fair to presume that he was appointed to the command on the
withdrawal of the other in June; but which of the two built Fort
Massachusetts along th