Amasa Holcomb
Amasa Holcomb (1787–1875) was an American farmer, surveyor, civil engineer, businessman, politician, and manufacturer of surveying instruments and telescopes. From instruments he made he observed the total solar eclipse of June 16, 1806. He made astronomical computations from his observations and published almanacs for the partial solar eclipses of 1807 and 1808 from his work. An asteroid, 45512 Holcomb, was named after him. Early life Holcomb was born on June 18, 1787. Holcomb grew up in a town with three names in two states as a young child, but he never changed his residence due to border disputes and resolutions. The town kept this name until 1804 when the boundary between the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts was placed further south, and his birth town became known as Southwick, Massachusetts, where he grew up. Holcomb was Elijah Holcomb Jr. and Lucy Holcomb and a descendant of the immigrant Thomas Holcomb. His paternal grandfather, also named Elijah, was th ...
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Southwick, Massachusetts
Southwick is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,232 at the 2020 census, down from 9,502 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Southwick was originally inhabited by either the Matitacooke, Mayawaug or Woronoake Native American tribes. Early history In the mid-17th century, pioneering English explorers moving up the Connecticut River Valley in search of fertile farmlands and game discovered the area and settled Southwick. It became a farming community, defined as the Southern ''(South-)'' village ''(-wick)'' part of the town of Westfield, Massachusetts. Early on, it was nicknamed "Poverty Plains" because the land was thought to be infertile. Its first residential home was built by Samuel Fowler and his wife Naomi Noble on what is now College Highway (US 202 and MA 10), about a quarter-mile north of the current town center. In colonial times, church attendance was man ...
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