Western Mass History

This episode is the first in a three-part series, exploring the history of King Philip's War in Western Massachusetts. This episode focuses on the start of the war in the summer and fall of 1675, with an emphasis on the Battle of Bloody Brook in South Deerfield. The battle occurred in modern-day South Deerfield on September 18, 1675, when Nipmuc, Wampanoag, and Pocumtuck warriors ambushed a group of English soldiers. The battle was one of the deadliest of the war for the English, and it was subsequently commemorated with what may have been the first European war memorial in British North America. Sources for this episode included the following books and other resources: King Philip's War by Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougias A History of Deerfield Massachusetts by George Sheldon King Philip's War by George W. Ellis and John E. Morris The History of King Philip's War by Increase Mather Soldiers in King Philip's War by George M. Bodge A History of the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts by Josiah Howard Temple and George Sheldon Travels in New-England and New York Vol. 2 by Timothy Dwight IV Historical Collections by John Warner Barber An Address Delivered at Bloody Brook by Edward Everett "(Re) Making History: Memory, Commemoration, and the Bloody Brook Monuments" by Barbara Mathews and Peter A. Thomas

One of Springfield's best-known claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of basketball. However, the city also played an important role in the early development of the sport of football. It was here that many of the sport's rules were established, and it was also here that the sport nearly met a premature demise due to a particularly violent college football game. In this episode, Western Mass History podcast host Derek Strahan is joined by local historian and football official Tim Casey for a discussion of Springfield's involvement in the early history of football. For more information about the key sites discussed in this episode, check out the following articles on Lost New England: https://lostnewengland.com/2013/09/massasoit-house-springfield/ https://lostnewengland.com/2014/03/hampden-park-springfield-mass/ And, for more information on the early development of the sport of football, the following books and articles are great resources: Corbett, Bernard, and Paul Simpson. “When Men Were Men and Football Was Brutal.” Yale Alumni Magazine , 2004. http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2004_11/football.html.  Des Jardins, Julie. Walter Camp: Football and the modern man. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.  Sumner, David E. Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football's Greatest Pioneer. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2021.  Watterson, John Sayle. College football: History, spectacle, controversy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

During the 1750s and 1760s, a stone carver in Hampton, Connecticut created a number of bizarre gravestones in the town and in a few other neighboring communities. He abruptly stopped producing these stones after 1769, but then in the 1770s his work started to appear some 60 miles away in the Western Massachusetts towns of Becket and Worthington. Until now, his identity has eluded gravestone scholars, who dubbed him the "Hampton Indian" because the feathered wings on the stones bear some resemblance to a Native American headdress. This episode explores the style of his gravestone carvings, his sources of inspiration, and a theory as to his identity, which is based on several key pieces of circumstantial evidence. For further reading on New England gravestones and carvers, I would highly recommend: Colonial Burying Grounds of Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them by Dr. James A. Slater Gravestones of Early New England and the Men Who Made Them by Harriette Merrifield Forbes Graven Images by Allan Ludwig The Masks of Orthodoxy by Peter Benes Memorials for Children of Change: The Art of Early New England Stonecarving by Dickran and Ann Tashjian Back issues of Markers, published by the Association for Gravestone Studies The Farber Gravestone Collection And if you are interested in more of my content on New England gravestones, you can follow my account @gravestonesofnewengland on Instagram and Facebook.

Western Massachusetts is comprised of 101 cities and towns, which were incorporated between 1636 and 1894. Some of these are fairly self-explanatory, but others are a little more unusual. Ever wonder why there is a Florida in Massachusetts? Or Peru? Belchertown? Ware? And what happened to Murrayfield, Gagetown, Norwich, and Partridgefield? This episode explores the history and politics of municipal nomenclature in Western Massachusetts, looking at how - and why - the towns got their names. For more information, check out these resources: Historical Atlas of Massachusetts An Essay on the Origin of the Names of the Towns in Massachusetts Cover image from New Map of Massachusetts by Nathaniel Dearborn (1840)

On September 3, 1902, Theodore Roosevelt was riding in a carriage in Pittsfield when it was struck by a trolley. His Secret Service bodyguard was killed, and Roosevelt himself narrowly escaped serious injury. This episode explores the causes of the accident, the subsequent investigations and criminal charges, and also looks at the possible long-term effects of this accident. If you are interested in learning more, the sources for this episode included Edmund Morris's biography Theodore Rex, along with a number of contemporary newspaper articles. Among the most helpful of these were the September 4, 5, and 6 issue of the Springfield Republican, and the September 4 issue of the Boston Globe. For photographs of the accident scene, including the one used as the cover image for this episode, see the Theodore Roosevelt Collection, which is available online through the Harvard Library.

On October 25, 1765, an angry mob attacked two royal officials in Northampton. They beat them, held them captive for hours, and eventually forced at least one of them to resign his commission. The cause of this riot was their enforcement of the Pine Tree Acts, which restricted the ability of colonists to cut down valuable white pine trees. This episode explores the motivations behind these laws, the ways that colonists in Western Massachusetts resisted these laws, and the consequences of the 1765 riot. Episode photo: Looking up the trunk of the Jake Swamp Tree, the tallest known tree in New England. Sources: Forests and Sea Power by Robert G. Albion History of Hadley: including the early history of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst and Granby, Massachusetts by Sylvester Judd April 24, 1764 letter to Governor Francis Bernard from Eleazer Burt and Elijah Lyman Pines, Profits, and Popular Politics: Responses to the White Pine Acts in the Colonial Connecticut River Valley by Strother E. Roberts The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay Hampshire County Court Records, Volume 8 (1764-1766) A report on the trees and shrubs growing naturally in the forests of Massachusetts by George B. Emerson The Exceptional White Pines of Mohawk Trail State Forest

In the 1790s, an illiterate former British redcoat named William Dorrell started a bizarre cult in the small town of Leyden, Massachusetts. He declared himself to be the messiah, and taught his followers to practice vegetarianism, nonviolence, and free love. His cult only lasted for a few years, but its brief heyday was in many ways a prelude to the many different unorthodox religious groups that would appear in the United States during the early 19th century. For more information about the Dorrellites: The History of Leyden, Massachusetts, 1676-1959 by William Tyler Arms History of the Town of Bernardston, Franklin County, Massachusetts, 1736-1900 by Lucy Jane Kellogg History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association An 1831 map of Leyden, made by Hezekiah Newcomb, one of Dorrell's followers.

Ever wonder about that strange dip in the Massachusetts-Connecticut border in Southwick? It is the result of a long and often contentious border dispute between the two states, dating back to the early colonial period. This episode explores the nearly 400-year history of this dispute, and the various controversies and border changes that occurred along the way. For more reading, check out these resources: "The Southwick Jog" by the Rev. Edward R. Dodge The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut by Clarence Winthrop Bowen The History of Western Massachusetts vol. 1 by Josiah Gilbert Holland And also take a look at this 1785 map of New England, which places the towns of Suffield and Enfield within the state of Massachusetts: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:3f462x889

In July 1777, in the midst of great uncertainty during the American Revolution, eleven of the most prominent Founding Fathers in the northeast traveled to Springfield, to participate in an interstate convention that sought to address wartime economic problems and the nation's finances. This episode explores the history of this largely-forgotten convention, including the challenges that the new country faced, the conclusions that the delegates reached, and the long-term effect of this and other wartime regional conventions.

In the early morning hours of January 26, 1876, seven masked men entered the home of John Whittelsey, cashier of the Northampton National Bank. They tied up the family and tortured Whittelsey for several hours, until he finally gave them the combinations to the bank vault. The men then cleaned out the vault, taking around $1.6 million in cash and securities, making it one of the largest bank robberies in 19th century America. This episode explores the identities of these men, how they pulled off the heist, and their eventual downfall after being betrayed by one of their own.

During the mid-1700s, the Massachusetts colonial government built a series of forts along the northwestern border, to defend against hostile French and Native American incursions. Of these, by far the most important was Fort Massachusetts, in modern-day North Adams. This fort defended the westernmost flank of the line of forts, and it was the site of several battles during King George's War. Among these was the 1746 Siege of Fort Massachusetts, when 30 colonists faced an army of nearly a thousand French and Native American soldiers. This episode tells the story of the siege and the men, women, and children who endured not only the battle itself, but also the subsequent year in captivity in Canada, where more than half of them died.

Mount Tom is one of the most distinctive landscape features in the Connecticut River Valley, and during the early 20th century it was the site of a popular summit house, which included a railroad to the top of the mountain. This episode explores the history of both the railroad and the summit house, including their eventual demise during the Great Depression.

This episode will explore the brief heyday of steamboats on the Connecticut River during the 1830s and 1840s, when steamboat operators attempted to overcome the many obstacles to navigation upstream of Hartford, in the hopes of turning towns like Springfield into major steamboat ports.

Welcome to the Western Mass History podcast!