e same line, or whether either of them, can not
now be stated with absolute certainty. It is probable that Ephraim
Williams saw to its construction under the Committee of the General
Court, of which Stoddard was Chairman; and at any rate he was in command
of the whole "line of Forts, viz. Northfield, Falltown, Colrain, Fort
Shirley, Fort Pelham, Fort Massachusetts, and the soldiers posted at the
Collars, Shattucks Fort, Bridgman's, Deerfield, Rhode Town, and New
Hampton," as early as Dec. 10, 1745. Just a year from that time he sends
in his account for the entire year,--"In which time he has had three
hundred and fifty men under his particular charge and government."

Because it was the first fort built by the Colony in that region, and
especially because Fort Massachusetts was captured and burnt by the
French and Indians in August, 1746, Shirley became very prominent in
that war, and was the headquarters of the successive commanders of the
line of forts. Massachusetts was rebuilt early in 1747, and thereafter
became the chief work; for both before and after the Peace of Aix la
Chapelle in 1748, it was perceived that the sites of Shirley and Pelham
had been ill-chosen, and that the route by the Hoosac was the one to be
kept open for hostile demonstration towards Crown Point, and the one to
be defended against hostile demonstration from all that quarter. Forts
Shirley and Pelham, accordingly, which were very differently
constructed, ceased to be of much military significance after the Peace,
though both were slightly garrisoned for several years after. In 1749
and a part certainly of the next year, there were five men only in Fort
Shirley, namely, Lieutenant William Lyman, Gershom Hawks, John Powell,
Samuel Stebbins, and Peter Bove. From June, 1725 till the end of May,
1754, one man in each constituted the garrison of Shirley and Pelham.
Archibald Powell held watch and ward on the heights of Heath and George
Hall on the lofty meadow in Rowe. Each drew his pay from the treasury of
the colony; and each had a magnificent lookout from his solitary
sentry-box. Monadnock is in plain sight to the east, and Haystack to the
north from the site of Fort Shirley and the Hoosacs to the west and
Greylock overtopping them greeted the roving gaze of George Hall from
the picketed enclosure of Fort Pelham.

There was but one chaplain to the line of forts, Rev. John Norton,
appointed from Falltown in 1745, who passed from one to the other