Bidwell House Museum: The First Massachusetts Constitution and How Town Actions Derailed It

07:59AM / Tuesday, May 26, 2026Print Story | Email Story

MONTEREY, Mass. — Join the Bidwell House Museum on Zoom for the first of four history talks planned for the 2026 season with Western Michigan University Professor Sally Hadden.

According to a press release:

Massachusetts enjoys the distinction that its constitution is the "oldest functioning constitution" in the world. But this honor applies to the 1780 state constitution, which is far better known than its proposed predecessor, the Massachusetts 1776 state constitution. Why was that version of the state constitution rejected by the people? What faults did they identify, and how did the 1780 document that John Adams drafted differ from the 1776 version?

Sally Hadden is a legal historian of early America and the antebellum United States. Her book Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas described the white-on-black violence that pervaded America’s slave societies. She co-edited the Blackwell Companion to American Legal History (with Al Brophy) and Signposts: New Directions in Southern Legal History (with Patricia Minter). She is completing a study entitled Cities of Lawyers: Lawyers in Boston, Philadelphia and Charleston that examines the working lives of attorneys in three eighteenth-century seaports. With Maeva Marcus, she is also writing a study of the first Supreme Court and its forebears. Hadden is a past officer and board member of the American Society of Legal History and she serves on the editorial board of Law and History Review. She is a professor of history at Western Michigan University

This lecture will be held via Zoom. Registration via the Museum event page is required, https://www.bidwellhousemuseum.org/event/the-first-massachusetts-constitution-and-how-town-actions-derailed-it/

Details for how to access the event will be sent via email 1-2 days in advance.

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South County Wins Masters Soccer League Title in OT

By Ben McDonoughiBerkshires.com Sports
11:39PM / Thursday, July 30, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — South County needed every bit of resilience Thursday night in the championship game of the Berkshire Masters Soccer Tournament, overcoming a second-half deficit before Caleb Rogers delivered the deciding blow in overtime to lift his side to a 2-1 victory over Barcelona.

The match opened as a defensive battle, with South County weathering consistent pressure from Barcelona. Although Barcelona generated the majority of the first-half scoring chances, South County’s back line remained organized and disciplined, repeatedly turning away dangerous attacks to keep the match scoreless through the opening 45 minutes.

The intensity of the contest increased before halftime as Barcelona was issued both a yellow card and a red card, forcing the side to play the remainder of the match with 10 players.

South County nearly took advantage of the extra man early in the second half when a dangerous opportunity rolled just wide of the post.

Despite playing shorthanded, Barcelona broke the deadlock about 15 minutes into the second half, finding the back of the net to take a 1-0 lead.

South County refused to back down.

The hosts responded later in the half with an equalizer, rewarding their persistence and bringing the match level at 1-1. Barcelona threatened to reclaim the lead on a dangerous free kick, but the South County goalkeeper came through with a key save to keep the score even and send the contest into overtime.

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