>>> TUCKED AWAY IN THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF MASSACHUSETTS, NESTLED
NEAR THE INVESTMENT AND NEW YORK STATE LINES, THE TOWN OF ADAMS,
MASSACHUSETTS, HAS A ADVISINGLY RICH AND COLORFUL HISTORY.
WITH TIES TO LUMINARIES SUCH AS PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY AND
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, THIS FORMER MILL TOWN HAS CHANGED A LOT OVER
THE YEARS.
"CONNECTING POINT" PRODUCER TONY DUNNE TAKES US EXPLORING THROUGH
THIS QUINTESSENTIAL AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN THE SHADOWS OF MT.
GREYLOCK.
>> ADAMS IS A SMALL TOWN.
I WOULD EASILY SAY 80% OF THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE WERE BORN
HERE.
THAT MAKES IT SORT OF SUSPICIOUS OF OUTSIDERS, BUT ALSO MAKES IT
A CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITY.
EVERYBODY KNOWS EVERYBODY AND EVERYBODY IS CONNECTED HERE.
IT IS A DIVERSE COMMUNITY IN THAT EVERYBODY HAS A HERITAGE OF
A DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUP.
THERE IS DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS IN THIS TOWN THAT EVERYBODY IS
PART OF.
THEY WERE COMING HERE 150 YEARS AFTER THE PROGRAM STARTED.
THE FIRST PEOPLE TO COME WERE QUAKERS AND BAPTISTS FROM
MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND.
THE QUAKERS, THEY DID NOT SMOKE OR DANCE OR DRINK, BUT THEY DID
BELIEVE THAT WOMEN SHOULD HAVE THE EQUAL RIGHTS.
AND ONE OF THE PEOPLE THAT WAS BORN IN THIS COMMUNITY WAS SUSAN
B. ANTHONY, WHO DEVOTED HER WHOLE LIFE TO GETTING HUMAN
RIGHTS FOR WOMEN.
SHE WAS VERY DEEPLY CONNECTED TO THE COMMUNITY HERE.
HER BIRTHPLACE WAS [INAUDIBLE].
NOW SHE BROUGHT DEMOCRACY TO HALF THE POPULATION WITHOUT
FIRING ONE SHOT, ONE GUN, OR A BUNCH OF YOUNG MEN, AND FOR
SOME, THAT'S A PRETTY GOOD RECORD.
AFTER THE RAILROAD GOT HERE, SOMETHING LIKE FIVE MILLS WERE
BUILT IN SEVEN YEARS, AND THE RAILROAD ALSO BROUGHT IN THE
IMMIGRANT WORKFORCE.
THE FIRST PERSONSING TO HERE WERE THE IRISH, AND THE NEXT
WERE THE SCOTS WHO CAME BEFORE AND AFTER THE CIVIL WAR TO
PRODUCE PLAIDS IN THE TEXTILE MILLS, AND THE FRENCH CANADIANS,
AND THE GERMAN WEAVERS CAME, AND POLISH TEENAGERS CAME TO WORK IN
THE MILLS, AND SO, BY AROUND WORLD WAR I, I WOULD SAY THERE
WERE FIVE LANGUAGES PREACHED IN THE PULPITS IN THE CHURCH HERE.
IN THE 1890s, THE [INAUDIBLE] BROTHERS BUILT FOUR LARGE MILLS
IN ADAMS, AND THAT BROUGHT IN THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE TO WORK
HERE, AND ALSO BROUGHT IN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY, WHICH
ENCOURAGED THE COMMERCIAL DISTRICT TO BE BUILT.
THEY DEFENDED PRESIDENT MCKINLEY, PROBABLY WHEN HE WAS
IN CONGRESS, AND HE WROTE FOR THE McKINLEY TARIFF, WHICH
KEPT FOREIGN GOODS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN GOODS PRODUCED IN
THE UNITED STATES.
HE CAME TO VISIT HERE, ONCE AS GOVERNOR OF OHIO, AND THEN TWICE
AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
I THINK HE CAME HERE AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
TO SEE HIS ECONOMIC PLAN IN WORK.
TO SEE HOW HIS TARIFFS HAD MADE THIS SMALL TOWN PROSPER.
HE WAS ASSASSINATED IN 1901, AND WITHIN TWO YEARS, THE PONTIFF
HAD ERECTED A STATUE HERE IN THE CENTER OF TOWN, AND THE LIBRARY,
WHICH HE, ACTUALLY, MADE THE CORNERSTONE OF WHEN HE WAS HERE
ON HIS FIRST VISIT.
BECAUSE OF ECONOMICS, AND THE FACT THAT COTTON COULD BE WOVEN
CHEAPER IN THE SOUTH THAN HERE, MOST OF THE COTTON MILLS WERE
CLOSING DOWN IN THE NORTHEAST AND MOVING TO THE SOUTH.
TO THE NORTH OF US THERE WAS ELECTRONICS IN NORTH ADAMS AND
TO THE SOUTH OF US, WAS POWER TRANSFORMERS AND DEFENSE
CONTRACTS IN PITTSFIELD, SO ADAMS WAS SLOWLY LOSING
POPULATION, AND LOSING JOBS.
OUR POPULATION IS NOW ONE-THIRD OF WHAT IT WAS AT ITS PEAK IN
1950.
IT'S AMAZING HOW AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, SO MANY EUROPEANS
WERE ABOUT TO COME TO THIS COUNTRY AND FORM A BRAND NEW
COMMUNITY.
SO, ADAMS DEFINITELY FOLLOWED THAT WHOLE SAME HISTORICAL
PROGRESS, WENT ON THROUGHOUT ALL OF NEW ENGLAND AND THE
NORTHEAST.
I THINK THAT LOCAL HISTORY IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE I THINK THAT
EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE A SENSE OF WHERE THEY CAME FROM, AND PEOPLE
SHOULD REALIZE THAT WE'RE CUSTODIANS OF THIS LANDS AND THE
BUILDINGS HERE, AND THAT WE SHOULD PRESERVE THEM FOR THE
NEXT GENERATION AND GENERATIONS TO COME.