The first occupant of Lot No. 33, which was divided by quite a stream, afterward called Stewart Brook. The following poem was written in commemoration:
Stewart Brook
1770
Upon Bel Eden's wind-kissed height,
Just over in Colrain
A rather high and hilly town,
But not unknown to fame
A little streamlet gushes forth
Fresh, pure, from crystal fountains,
Any gaily gambols down the hills,
And through the distant mountains
The graceful deer from out the wood
Feed on its grassy brink,
The muskrat scampers up the bank
Pursued by gamey mink.
Fierce panthers scream along its course,
The wolves reply with howls,
The bears on mischief ever bent
Re-echo back with growls.
Upon a meadow near this brook,
Mid-nature's solitude,
Young Stewart built a cabin strong,
A building small and rude
Here in the forest's deep recess,
His axe rings sharp and clear,
Swung by the cordy sinews of
This sturdy pioneer.
1904
How changed the scene wild nature tamed
Along this silvery stream,
The forest's giant trees are gone
The past seems but a dream
White clover blossoms on the hills,
Cows graze upon the plain
And on the nearby hillside slopes
are fields of grass and grain
The wild rose opens its petals sweet
The last wild flower of spring,
The golden rod's bright yellow plume
Nods to the wild wind's wing
The lily lifts its painted cup
Along these flower-strewn banks,
The gentian too of heavenly blue
Springs up in stately ranks,
Old maples stand on either shore,
Their branches softly meet,
Neath which these joyous waters flow,
With music glad and sweet
Rush onward in thy course, sweet brook,
Swift through the tangled sod,
And in the sweetest melody
Sing praises to thy God
--B. Frank Severance (Severance, B. Frank. Genealogy and biography of the descendants of Walter Stewart of Scotland and of John Stewart who came to America in 1718 and settled in Londonderry, N.H. Greenfield, Mass. : T. Morey & Son, 1905, pg. 83-84).