At the time of the purchase the condition of the soil was more fertile than at present. Rye, oats, corn, and barley were raised in abundance, as well as flax. The hills furnished excellent pasturage for cattle and horses. The settlers were a quiet, honest, Godfearing people. The town grew very slowly. In 1776 the population was 729. In 1800, 1,144. Since the latter date it has decreased in population. When the trouble arose between England and the colonies, the town of Pelham was one of the first to answer a communication from the Committee of Correspondence in Boston. A few literal extracts are interesting: “To the Committee of Correspondence, Gentlemen: We have considered your Circular letters and are not a little shoked at the attempts upon the liberties of America ... we replied back also upon the unhappy Reign of the Stuart family & bloody Struggles to subdue a free people to Non-resistance and Passive obedience. We have still a more sense of the worth of our Liberties by the total loss of them in the conquered Kingdom of Ireland when altho made of the same one Blood they have a yoke of Iron put upon their Necks and they must serve their conquerors with as much of their money and blood as they are pleased to demand and sustain more intolerable oppressions from these Legislative Masters and unfeeling Landlords than some of the Barbarious Nations compared by the Ancient Romans before the wars of their Empire. “This so grievous a yoke upon the Western Isle which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear has driven them by hundreds and by thousands to bide a final adue to their otherwise Dear Native Land and seek a peaceful Retreat from the bane of Oppressions in this American Wilderness. Depending upon the faith of the Nation for all the privileges chartered to American Colonies, we cannot therefore but be greatly alarmed at the news of the Incroachments upon the Natural and Chartered Rights of this Province where we have our abode.” The military history of the town is an honorable one. In the War of the Revolution a large number of the male residents took part. At the close of the Revolution the town came into prominence on account of the part many of its citizens took in “Shays’ Rebellion.” This rebellion was not prompted by any spirit of disloyalty, nor was it designed or plotted to overturn the government. It was the wild and lawless expression of discontent with harsh circumstances, the natural outbreak of those who were suffering and oppressed. Daniel Shea, one of the leaders in this rebellion, was a remarkable man. Very little is known about his early life. His birthplace has been assigned to Hopkinton, Mass., but this has been disputed. There is a tradition that his parents and young Shea came from County Cork, Ireland, and that they lived for some time on the eastern border of Pelham. He spells his name both “Shea” and “Shays.”