Russell, Massachusetts
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Russell is a
town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
in Hampden County,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, United States. The population was 1,643 at the 2020 census. It is part of the
Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...
Metropolitan Statistical Area.


History

Russell was originally part of the Pocumtuc (also called Deerfield) nation, who spoke an Algonquian language. Like most native peoples, they were decimated by
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
, then their participation in
King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodland ...
1675–1676 proved their undoing as victory by colonial forces led to the dispersal of remnants of this tribe west into New York and north into Canada. Although the way was open for settlement beyond the
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, Ha ...
lowlands, the thin, rocky soil and hilly topography of uplands to the west delayed settlement until about 1725, when there was no more promising land left to settle in the valley. Because river valleys in the hilly areas were subject to cold air pockets and late frosts—especially during the
Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Mat ...
that persisted until the late 19th century—most early settlement was in uplands in and near South Quarter. Relatively unproductive soils and small fields were not conducive to growing
cash crop A cash crop, also called profit crop, is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate a marketed crop from a staple crop ("subsi ...
s, so farming was more of a
subsistence A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing and shelter) rather than to the market. Definition "Subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself and family at a minimum level. Basic subsiste ...
nature. Most of what was consumed on these farms was homemade or bartered for. The upland farm population peaked around 1800, when more productive farmland opened up beyond the
Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...
in
western New York Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all so ...
and the
Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from part of the unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established ...
—today's
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
states. Employment opportunities became significant by about 1825 as the first (water power-dependent)
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
unfolded in New England. The cash income gave farmsteads access to manufactured goods and imported food such as cane sugar from the West Indies in lieu of local maple products. Farming became more of a part-time occupation and a growing number of farms were abandoned, gradually reverting to forest until only stonewalls and cellar holes remain. The Industrial Revolution led to development in the Westfield River valley, as the water power potential of the three cascades was developed for industrial use. Three villages developed around mills at the cascades, and the easy grades along the valley were utilized for a
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
route across the Berkshires' of relief. A small upstream village near the Huntington border was called Crescent Mills. Originally a Chapin and Gould Paper Company mill, Texxon still operates a mill there that makes special fabrics for shoes. The middle settlement and the town's administrative center is called Russell Village. Westfield River Paper Company manufactured glassine and other specialty papers there until it was decommissioned and then bought for a proposed
biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...
electric plant utilizing local cordwood. Russell Village was a virtually self-sufficient community as late as the 1950s, with several stores, a barbershop, and several restaurants; then increasing automobile ownership brought the greater commercial offerings in Westfield and other Pioneer Valley cities within reach. The lower industrial village was named Woronoco after a local tribe, and the local cascades were once called Salmon Falls, presumably because
Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Hucho taimen, Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlan ...
were observed and captured there. Strathmore Paper Company manufactured high-quality bond papers at this location until it was taken over by
International Paper The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 39,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31 ...
and then decommissioned. Strathmore was originally purchased by Horace A. Moses in 1904. Moses, later co-founder of
Junior Achievement JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide is a global non-profit youth organization. It was founded in 1919 by Horace A. Moses, Theodore Vail, and Winthrop M. Crane. JA works with local businesses, schools, and organizations to deliver experiential ...
, was a visionary social engineer as well as an industrialist who developed Woronoco as a model company town with housing of a notably high standard and buildings accommodating a wide variety of community activities. The factory, and the town it created, were based upon his journey to the factory town of Strathmore, Scotland. Moses also developed a estate around Russell Pond in South Quarter, where he raised both award-winning apples and prized hunting dogs. He later sold off sections of the estate to the Hampden Council of the
Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...
. Today, the Horace A. Moses Scout Reservation contains many buildings original to Moses and his staff, including his summer home, which is known simply as "The Manor House". The property is thought to be one of the last homes of the rare Scottish thistle, which Moses imported from Scotland in the 1930s. In 1965 Russell joined with neighboring towns to form Gateway Regional School District that now educates some 1,300 students at an annual cost to taxpayers of about $15,000 per student. With very little industrial and commercial property to share this tax burden, Russell has one of the highest tax rates per unit assessed value in the state. Westfield River Paper Company shut down operations in 1994, while Strathmore Paper was purchased by International Paper Co. and ceased operations in 1999. This left the town with no industrial tax base other than the small Texxon plant in Crescent Mills. Retail operations are also very limited, with residents mostly commuting to Westfield and West Springfield to shop. In the 1990s
Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...
s moved from western
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
to Russell where they established a church, a furniture factory/showroom called "Country Woodcraft" and a bakery shop called "Bread Basket". On September 11 of every year since 2003 the Mennonite Youth Chorus from Russell has offered songs of remembrance for victims of the
terrorist attack Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war a ...
at the Ground Zero site of the World Trade Center in New York City. In 2004 a
biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...
generating plant was proposed to take advantage of the former Westfield River Paper Co. site along the Westfield River with access to water, the former
Boston and Albany Railroad The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The mainline is currently used by CSX for freight a ...
line, and supplies of waste wood as a byproduct of real estate development,
logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksforestry work. The proposal proved highly controversial. While it would have created a number of jobs and lightened the tax burden, opponents raised concerns of truck traffic through town, air pollution, water withdrawals and
thermal pollution Thermal pollution, sometimes called "thermal enrichment", is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. Thermal pollution is the rise or drop in the temperature of a natural body of water caused by h ...
of water returned to the river after use for cooling purposes. As of 2010, political issues in Russell largely revolve around the tax base and economy.


Geography

Russell is in western Hampden County, bordered by Granville to the south,
Blandford Blandford Forum ( ) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour, north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the United Kingdom 2021 census, 2021 census. The town is notable for its Georgian archit ...
to the west, Huntington to the north, Montgomery to the northeast and Westfield to the southeast. The main village, Russell, is in the northwestern part of town and is a
census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
. The village of Woronoco is in the eastern part of town. Both villages are along the Westfield River and are connected by U.S. Route 20, which leads southeast to Westfield and northwest to Lee.
Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...
, the Massachusetts Turnpike, crosses the center of Russell, but has no exits in the town. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the town of Russell has a total area of , of which are land and , or 2.39%, are water. The town features two very different topographical sections: South Quarter is mainly uplands at elevations from along the rim of a plateau west of the Connecticut River Valley, while the rest of the town is a deep valley along the swift Westfield River. The South Quarter uplands end at an escarpment near the southeastern border of the town, the edge of a
rift valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges produced by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear ...
originating in the Mesozoic Era when Europe and North America separated. The
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...
still follows this rift valley, known as the
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, Ha ...
for its early settlement by English
Puritans The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
. The escarpment between the South Quarter uplands and the valley is forested—too steep to farm—and dissected by streams that have eroded ravines back into the uplands. Along the Westfield River valley, during the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
epoch, continental glaciers scraped away soil and steepened cliffs on hills around the valley, particularly on Mounts Tekoa and Shatterack east of the river, and on Turtle Bend Mountain standing in the middle of the valley. Although none of these peaks actually rises much above the surrounding plateau, their precipitous slopes make them appear impressively high from the valley. As continental glaciers receded northward, a glacial moraine dammed the Connecticut River below
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
, producing Lake Hitchcock, with an arm extending northwest along the Westfield River. Gravel banks large enough to be commercially valuable were deposited in Russell where the river entered the erstwhile lake. The river has three widely separated cascades within the town, dropping about in total that figured in the township's industrial development, above.


Demographics

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2010, there were 1,775 people, 656 households, and 498 families residing in the town. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was 100.9 people per square mile (39/km). There were 699 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.7%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.7%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.2% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 0.1% from other races, and 1.0% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 2.6% of the population. There were 656 households, out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.8% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 6.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.1% were non-families. 16.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.7 and the average family size was 3.0. In the town, the population was spread out, with 25% under the age of 18 and 9.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.4 years. The town is 49.2% male and 50.8% female. The median income for a household in the town was $57,308 and the median income for a family was $58,498. About 7.1% of families and 9.0% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 14.7% of those under age 18 and 5.7% of those age 65 or over.


Education

There are no schools in town. Students attend Littleville Elementary School, Gateway Regional Middle School, Gateway Regional Junior High School, and Gateway Regional High School in Huntington.


Politics

In the 2020 presidential election, the town provided Libertarian Party nominee
Jo Jorgensen Jo Jorgensen (born May 1, 1957) is an American Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian political activist and academic. Jorgensen was the Libertarian Party (United States), Libertarian Party's nominee for president of the United States ...
with her highest percentage of the vote statewide. Out of 919 votes cast in the town, Jorgensen received 28 (3.05 percent) votes. Former
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Donald J. Trump won the town with 512 votes (55.71 percent) over then-former
Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
with 366 votes (39.83 percent). Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins obtained six votes (0.65 percent) and there were seven write-ins (0.76 percent).


Notable people

* Clarissa Chapman Armstrong, missionary in Hawaii, born in Russell * Reuben Atwater Chapman, chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, born in Russell * Joel Doolittle, justice of the
Vermont Supreme Court The Vermont Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority of the U.S. state of Vermont. Unlike most other states, the Vermont Supreme Court hears appeals directly from the trial courts, as Vermont has no intermediate appeals court. The court ...
, born in Russell


See also

* List of mill towns in Massachusetts


References


External links


''MHC Survey Reconnaissance Town Report: Russell''
(PDF), Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1982.
''Town of Russell, Massachusetts Draft Open Space and Recreation Plan''
(PDF), Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, 2007. {{authority control Springfield metropolitan area, Massachusetts Towns in Hampden County, Massachusetts Towns in Massachusetts