Belchertown, Massachusetts
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Belchertown, Massachusetts
Belchertown (previously known as Cold Spring and Belcher's Town) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 15,350 at the 2020 census. The town includes the census-designated place of Belchertown. Belchertown was formerly the home of the Belchertown State School. The land on which the school sat is, as of 2016, being redeveloped for mixed uses including residential, commercial and recreational. This includes the Lampson Brook Farm, used for community and sustainable agriculture, outdoor recreation, and wildlife preservation. History In 1716, the Equivalent Lands were sold by Connecticut Colony to residents who reside in present-day Connecticut and Massachusetts. Some of these lands were granted to Jonathan Belcher, the future Royal Governor of Massachusetts. Belchertown was first settled in 1731 and was officially incorporated in 1761 as Cold Spring, later the name ...
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List Of Sovereign States
The following is a list providing an overview of sovereign states around the world with information on their status and recognition of their sovereignty. The 206 listed states can be divided into three categories based on membership within the United Nations System: 193 UN member states, 2 UN General Assembly non-member observer states, and 11 other states. The ''sovereignty dispute'' column indicates states having undisputed sovereignty (188 states, of which there are 187 UN member states and 1 UN General Assembly non-member observer state), states having disputed sovereignty (16 states, of which there are 6 UN member states, 1 UN General Assembly non-member observer state, and 9 de facto states), and states having a special political status (2 states, both in free association with New Zealand). Compiling a list such as this can be a complicated and controversial process, as there is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations concerni ...
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Belchertown State School
The Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded was established in 1922 in Belchertown, Massachusetts. It became known for inhumane conditions and poor treatment of its patients, and became the target of a series of lawsuits prior to its eventual closing in 1992. The building complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Conditions and treatment of patients Located at 30 State Street, the campus contains 10 major buildings built in a Colonial Revival style by Kendall, Taylor, and Co. State schools of Massachusetts were institutions for people with intellectual disabilities or developmental disabilities, though at the time different terms were used. Throughout its first 40 years, Belchertown operated mostly without scrutiny from outside sources. Author Benjamin Ricci (whose son lived at the school, and who later led a class-action lawsuit protesting the conditions there) referred to the conditions as "horrific," "medieval," and "barbaric." Doctors a ...
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Ware, Massachusetts
Ware is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,066 as of 2020. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The census-designated place of Ware, comprising the main settlement of the town, is in the southeastern corner of the town. The area's students are served by Ware Junior Senior High School. History Ware was first settled on Equivalent Lands in 1717 ''Historical Collections''
John Warner Barber; Dorr; 1841. and was officially incorporated in 1775. It is named after the town of in
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New Salem, Massachusetts
New Salem is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 983 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History New Salem was first settled in 1737 and was officially incorporated in 1753, named for the settlers from Salem that founded the town. The geography of New Salem benefited greatly from the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir. Prior to its building, New Salem, which has always been the southeast corner of Franklin County, did not extend much further south than the village of Cooleyville, now along U.S. Route 202. However, with the forming of the reservoir, the town received all lands above the water line between the two forks of the reservoir, as it was the only land connection to the peninsula. With its southern borders now following former branches of the Swift River, New Salem now includes most of the former town of Prescott (except for a small corner east of the Middle Branch ...
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Pelham, Massachusetts
Pelham is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,280 at the 2020 census. Its ZIP Code is shared with Amherst. Pelham is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Pelham (pronounced "PEL-am"; the "h" is silent) was part of the Equivalent Lands compromise, and was first settled in 1738 by mostly Presbyterian Scotch-Irish immigrants. It was officially incorporated in 1743. The town is named for the Pelham family; Henry Pelham was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time of the town's incorporation. The town is best known as being home to Daniel Shays, leader of Shays' Rebellion, a series of protests against crushing austerity measures in Massachusetts during 1786 and 1787. The rebellion, planned in Conkey's Tavern in town, drew support from many towns in central and western Massachusetts, but it met its practical end when the angry farmers' force refused to fight Governor Bowdoin's army and the ...
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Hampden County, Massachusetts
Hampden County is a non-governmental county located in the Pioneer Valley of the state of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, Hampden County's population was 465,825. Its traditional county seat is Springfield, the Connecticut River Valley's largest city, and economic and cultural capital; with an estimated population of 154,758, approximately 1 in 3 residents of Hampden County live in Springfield. Hampden County was split from Hampshire County in 1812, because Northampton, Massachusetts, was made Hampshire County's "shire town" in 1794; however, Springfield—theretofore Hampshire County's traditional shire town, dating back to its founding in 1636—grew at a pace far quicker than Northampton and was granted shire town-status over its own, southerly jurisdiction. It was named for parliamentarian John Hampden. To the north of Hampden County is modern-day Hampshire County; to the west is Berkshire County; to the east is Worcester County; to the sou ...
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Franklin County, Massachusetts
Franklin County is a nongovernmental county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 71,029, which makes it the least-populous county on the Massachusetts mainland, and the third-least populous county in the state. Its traditional county seat and most populous city is Greenfield. Its largest town by area is New Salem. Franklin County comprises the Greenfield Town, MA Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Springfield-Greenfield Town, MA Combined Statistical Area. History Franklin County was created on June 24, 1811, from the northern third of Hampshire County. It was named for Benjamin Franklin. Franklin County's government was abolished by the state government in 1997, at the county's request. Law and government Like several other Massachusetts counties, Franklin County exists today only as a geographic region and has no county government. The Franklin County Commission voted itself out ...
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Quabbin Reservoir
The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in Massachusetts, and was built between 1930 and 1939. Along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, to the east, and 40 other cities and towns in Greater Boston. The Quabbin also supplies water to three towns west of the reservoir and acts as backup supply for three others. By 1989, it supplied water for 2.5 million people, about 40% of the state's population at the time. It has an aggregate capacity of and an area of 38.6 square miles (99.9 km2). Structures and water flow Quabbin Reservoir water flows to the Wachusett Reservoir through the Quabbin Aqueduct. The Quabbin watershed is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, while the water supply system is operated by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. The Winsor Dam and the Goodnough Dike form the reservoir from impoundments of the three branches of the Swift River. The Quabbin Reservo ...
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Enfield, Massachusetts
Enfield was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The town was lost as a result of the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir. History Incorporated in 1816 from portions of Greenwich and Belchertown. It was named in honor of one of its early settlers, Robert Field. General Joseph Hooker, Union general during the American Civil War, was once a resident, and his grandfather was once a town leader. It was centered at the junction of the east and west branches of the Swift River, and the Athol Branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad ran through the town. The town bordered six other towns - Belchertown, Pelham, Greenwich, Prescott, Ware, and Hardwick. Enfield was disincorporated on April 28, 1938 and portions of the town were annexed to the adjacent towns of Belchertown, New Salem, Pelham, and Ware. (Not all of the former town is now in Hampshire County: the portion ceded to New Salem is now in Franklin County.) The headquarters of the Metropolitan District Commission dur ...
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Greenwich, Massachusetts
Greenwich () was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The town was lost as a result of the formation of the Quabbin Reservoir in order to supply Boston's growing water needs. History Greenwich was established in 1739 as Quabbin, incorporated as Quabbin Parish in 1754, and became the town of Greenwich (named for John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, John Campbell, Duke of Greenwich) in 1754. It was located along the East and Middle branches of the Quabbin Valley, Swift River. The Athol Branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad ran through the center of town, as did Route 21 (Massachusetts), Route 21. It was well known for its lakes and ponds, which were popular vacation spots. It bordered four towns—Enfield, Prescott, Dana, and Hardwick. H. P. Lovecraft's fictional town of Dunwich (Lovecraft), Dunwich in his seminal story "The Dunwich Horror" was partially based on the town of Greenwich. Additionally, Lovecraft's story "The Colour Out of Space" is set in this valley before it ...
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Jonathan Belcher
Jonathan Belcher (8 January 1681/8231 August 1757) was a merchant, politician, and slave trader from colonial Massachusetts who served as both governor of Massachusetts Bay and governor of New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741 and governor of New Jersey from 1747 to 1757. Born into a wealthy Massachusetts merchant family (his father Andrew Belcher was a tavern owner in Cambridge and grandfather who immigrated to Massachusetts Bay from England), Belcher attended Harvard College and then entered into the family business and local politics. He was instrumental in promoting Samuel Shute as governor of Massachusetts in 1715, and sat on the colony's council, but became disenchanted with Shute over time and eventually joined the populist faction of Elisha Cooke Jr. After the sudden death of Governor William Burnet in 1729 Belcher successfully acquired the governorships of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. During his tenure, Belcher politically marginalized those who he perceived as oppo ...
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