History Of Hampshire County, Massachusetts
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History Of Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Hampshire County is a historical and judicial county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 162,308. Its most populous municipality is Amherst (due to seasonal student population; the largest year-round is Northampton), its largest town in terms of landmass is Belchertown, and its traditional county seat is Northampton. The county is named after the county Hampshire, in England. Hampshire County is part of the Springfield, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Together with Hampden County, Hampshire County municipalities belong to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. History Hampshire County was constituted in 1662 from previously unorganized territory comprising the entire western part of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It included the original towns of Springfield, Northampton, and Hadley. The original Hampshire County also included territory that is now in modern-day Hampden County, Franklin County, and Berkshire County, as ...
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List Of Counties In Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has 14 counties, though eight of these fourteen county governments were abolished between 1997 and 2000. The counties in the southeastern portion of the state retain county-level local government (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk, Plymouth) or, in one case, ( Nantucket County) consolidated city-county government. Vestigial judicial and law enforcement districts still follow county boundaries even in the counties whose county-level government has been disestablished, and the counties are still generally recognized as geographic entities if not political ones. Three counties (Hampshire, Barnstable, and Franklin) have formed new county regional compacts to serve as a form of regional governance. Abolitions of some county governments Mismanagement of Middlesex County's public hospital in the mid-1990s left that county on the brink of insolvency, and in 1997 the Massachusetts legislature stepped in by assuming all assets and obligations of ...
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Hadley, MA
Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,325 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around the Hampshire and Mountain Farms Malls along Route 9 is a major shopping destination for the surrounding communities. History Early Hadley was first settled in 1659 and was officially incorporated in 1661. The former Norwottuck was renamed for Hadleigh, Suffolk. Its settlers were primarily a discontented group of families from the Puritan colonies of Hartford and Wethersfield, Connecticut, who petitioned to start a new colony up north after some controversy over doctrine in the local church. The settlement was led by John Russell. The first settler inside of Hadley was Nathaniel Dickinson, who surveyed the streets of what is now Hadley, Hatfield, and Amherst. At the time, Hadley encompassed a wide radius of land on both sides of the Connecticut River (but mostly ...
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Pioneer Valley
The Pioneer Valley is the colloquial and promotional name for the portion of the Connecticut River Valley that is in Massachusetts in the United States. It is generally taken to comprise the three counties of Hampden County, Massachusetts, Hampden, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Hampshire, and Franklin County, Massachusetts, Franklin. The lower Pioneer Valley corresponds to the Springfield, Massachusetts metropolitan area, the region's urban center, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, Hampden County. The upper Pioneer Valley region includes the smaller cities of Northampton, Massachusetts, Northampton and Greenfield, Massachusetts, Greenfield, the county seats of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Hampshire and Franklin County, Massachusetts, Franklin counties, respectively. Historically the northern part of the Valley was an agricultural region, known for growing Connecticut shade tobacco and other specialty crops like Hadley, Massachusetts, Hadley asparagus; howe ...
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Hampshire Council Of Governments
The Hampshire Council of Governments was a government entity with principal offices in Northampton, Massachusetts. History The county government was abolished by the state in 1999 with a Hampshire Council of Governments formed in its place. Hampshire Care Hospital was transferred over to the council from the county government While the state law allowing municipal and regional governments to form regional cohorts was passed in 1997, the council began its electricity supplier program in 2006 with school districts and municipal governments as clients. In 2010, the council move to become the franchised electricity supplier for residential service in the member-towns. Hadley town meeting voted to withdrawal from the council on October 5, 2017, while Belchertown Town Meeting voted to leave on May 14, 2018. With no inherent source of income, given liabilities and no regional planning function, the Council of Governments ended up winding up operations in 2019. Membership Membership in ...
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County Government
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) ''Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoting a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count (earl) or, in his stead, a viscount (''vicomte'').C. W. Onions (Ed.) ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology''. Oxford University Press, 1966. Literal equivalents in other languages, derived from the equivalent of "count", are now seldom used officially, including , , , , , , , and Slavic '' zhupa''; terms equivalent to 'commune' or 'community' are now often instead used. When the Normans conquered England, they brought the term with them. Although there were at first no counts, ''vicomtes'' or counties in Anglo-Norman England, the earlier Anglo-Saxons did have earls, sheriffs and shires. The shires were the districts that became the historic counties of England, and given the same L ...
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Somers, CT
Somers ( ) is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 10,255 at the 2020 census. The town center is listed by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP). In 2007, ''Money Magazine'' listed Somers 53rd on its "100 Best Places to Live", based on "economic opportunity, good schools, safe streets, things to do and a real sense of community." Bordering Massachusetts, Somers is considered part of the city of Springfield NECTA. Somers is southeast of Springfield and considered more oriented toward it than the city of Hartford, which lies to the southwest. History Somers was originally part of the Agawam Plantation in the 17th century. Agawam Plantation became Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1641 and in 1682, the Enfield Parish broke off from the Springfield settlement. In 1689, the first settler, Benjamin Jones, came to Somers in what was then East Enfield about a half mile from the ...
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Warren, MA
Warren is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,975 at the 2020 census. The town contains the villages of Warren and West Warren. History Warren was first settled in 1664 and was officially incorporated on January 16, 1741, as the town of Western.Sylvia Buck, ''Warren, Town in the Making, 1741-1991'' Originally a part of Quaboag Plantation, the town now known as Warren was part of Brookfield for 68 years until it was renamed Western. Warren includes land petitioned from both the Quaboag Plantation and the "Kingsfield", which included parts of Palmer and Brimfield. On March 13, 1834, the town was renamed Warren in honor of General Joseph Warren, who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War. The need to rename the town came about due to confusion of the name "Western" with the town of Weston, Massachusetts. According to the ''History of Warren Massachusetts'' by Olney I. Darling, Western was rena ...
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Brookfield, MA
Brookfield is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Brookfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660. The population was 3,439 at the 2020 census. History Brookfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660 and was officially incorporated in 1718. The town was settled by men from Ipswich as part of the Quaboag Plantation lands. In August 1675, King Philip's War reached central Massachusetts. Brookfield, one of the most isolated settlements in the colony, was attacked by Nipmuck forces. After an ambush, the town was besieged. For two days the townsfolk, consisting of 80 people, sought shelter in the garrison house while the rest of the town was completely destroyed. The settlement lay abandoned for twelve years. During the winter of 1776, General Henry Knox passed through the town with cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to end the Siege of Boston. A marker along Route 9 commemorates his route. Bathsheba Spooner In March 1778, Joshua Spooner, a wealthy farme ...
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Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital is Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford, and its most populous city is Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport. Connecticut lies between the major hubs of New York City and Boston along the Northeast megalopolis, Northeast Corridor, where the New York metropolitan area, New York-Newark Combined Statistical Area, which includes four of Connecticut's seven largest cities, extends into the southwestern part of the state. Connecticut is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, third-smallest state by area after Rhode Island and Delaware, and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 29th most populous with more than 3.6 million residents as of 2024, ranking it fourth among the List of states and territories of the Unite ...
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Enfield, CT
Enfield is a New England town, town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, first settled by John and Robert Pease of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region. The population was 42,141 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is bordered by Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, to the north, Somers, Connecticut, Somers to the east, East Windsor, Connecticut, East Windsor and Ellington, Connecticut, Ellington to the south, and the Connecticut River (towns of Suffield, Connecticut, Suffield and Windsor Locks, Connecticut, Windsor Locks) to the west. History Enfield was originally inhabited by the Podunk people, and contained their two villages of Scitico and Nameroke. Though land grants were first granted in 1674, no one attempted to settle what is known as Enfield until 1679 when the Pease Brothers of Robert and John II, settlers from Salem, Massachusetts came in ...
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Suffield, CT
Suffield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, and located in the Connecticut River Valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,752. The town center is a census-designated place listed as Suffield Depot. Bordering Massachusetts, Suffield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts NECTA. It was once within the boundaries of Massachusetts. History Originally known as Southfield—pronounced "Suffield," on May 20, 1674, the committee for the settling of the town petitioned: The petition was granted by the Massachusetts Bay court on June 8, 1674. Suffield was incorporated as a town in March 1682. Also, on early 17th and 18th century maps, Suffield was alternatively spelled as Suthfield. Suffield and the surrounding area were part of the Equivalent Lands compromise with Massachusetts in 1715–1716. Suffield's native and adopted sons include The Rev. Ebenezer Gay, a renowned Congregational minister ...
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Southwick, MA
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. 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), approximately one-quarter mile (0.4 km) north of the current town center. In colonial times, church attenda ...
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