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English colonists moving
up the Connecticut River settled in
Hatfield about 1660 on land that had
been purchased from the nearby Native
American Indian village of Norwottuck.
The location was desirable because of
the large amounts of relatively flat,
rich, and stone-free agriculture land
and the small waterfall which could
power a mill on what became known as the
Mill River. For a decade the settlement
was legally part of the Town of Hadley,
but in 1670 Hatfield separated from
Hadley and built its own meeting house
which served as the center of government
and the Congregational Church. During
King Philip’s War in 1675-76 between the
colonists of New England and the Native
American Indians, the settlement on Main
Street was surrounded by a stockade,
many men from Hatfield fought in
campaigns up and down the valley and
fought off three attacks on the village.
During the eighteenth
century the town prospered and the
growing population of the western and
northern regions of the town eventually
separated to become the Towns of
Williamsburg and Whately. Enterprising
Hatfield farmers fattened cattle that
were sold to markets in larger towns and
cities. The reputation of Hatfield beef
was sufficient to cause General
Washington to station an officer in
Hubbard’s Tavern to purchase meat for
the troops in the Continental Army. In
addition to agriculture, the waterfall
on the Mill River powered a grist mill
and a saw mill, while the Running Gutter
Brook powered a linseed oil mill.
In the early nineteenth
century broom corn became a major cash
crop and the handicraft production of
corn brooms took place in many homes.
The building of the first railroad
through the town in 1846 brought in many
Irish and French Canadians, the first
significant numbers of people who were
not of English ancestry. Many of these
people began their years in Hatfield
working as farm hands or making corn
brooms and their descendants eventually
founded St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic
Church.
In the second half of the
nineteenth century tobacco became the
major cash crop and in the early
twentieth century onions, asparagus, and
potatoes were also grown in quantity.
To meet the need for the considerable
labor these crops required, immigrants
from Eastern Europe, particularly Poles,
were encouraged to settle in the Town.
Eventually the Poles founded Holy
Trinity Roman Catholic Church and Slovak
families founded Holy Trinity Lutheran
Church.
The appearance of the
town changed as successful farmers and
entrepreneurs built stately homes on
Main Street, small farmers and recent
immigrants built more modest houses
throughout the town, fields were dotted
with the barns used to dry tobacco,
several large tobacco sorting shops were
built, and a succession of small mills
were built near the waterfall. At
various times during the nineteenth and
twentieth century the falls powered a
grist mill, a saw mill, a wood-working
shop, a button shop, a gun factory, a
spark plug factory, and a large machine
shop. Neighborhoods of homes and retail
businesses grew up around the mills as
well as the railroad depots in West
Hatfield and North Hatfield.
Hatfield was known for
more than its agriculture and industry.
In the nineteenth century the town was
home of several notable
philanthropists. Oliver Smith, who had
made a fortune as an investor in
agriculture and land, endowed the Smith
Agricultural and Industrial School and
the Smith Charities, both of which still
play a major role in the region. A
generation later Sophia Smith endowed
both Smith Academy, which still serves
as Hatfield’s high school, and Smith
College, one of the premier women’s
colleges in the United States. And
Caleb Cooley Dickinson endowed the
Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
In more recent years
Hatfield has retained its relatively
small size and rural appearance. Much
of the land is still dedicated to the
production of corn, potatoes, and
vegetables for market. But as
agriculture has become more mechanized
fewer people in town work in the
fields. Since the building of Route
I-91 in the 1960s, increasing numbers of
people who live in Hatfield commute to
jobs in neighboring communities. The
small factories on the Mill River are
now closed, but they have been replaced
by several assembly and distribution
centers and retail businesses located
close to I-91. Although many residents
now work outside the town and have ties
to other communities, there continues to
be a strong sense of identification with
Hatfield which retains its town meeting
form of government and its own
independent school system. As the signs
along the roads leading into town say,
Hatfield enters the new century, proud
of its past and optimistic about its
future.
- Courtesy of the Hatfield Historical
Commission |
