Easthampton, Mass.



Main Street. Laid out by Sergeant Corse


Main Street. Laid out by Sergeant Corse.

ther on, something yet untried which might result in permanent betterment to themselves; and yet, whatever worldly considerations determined their mobements up the river, the founders of Northampton were Puritans in the choicest and strictest sense of the term. With a form of worship as simple as their creed, the wove their religion into their lives, and asked God's blessing on all their undertakings. In their original petition to the General Court of Massachusetts for leave "to plant, possess and inhabit Nonotuck," they represent that Nonotuck as "a place suitable to erect a town upon, for the public weal and for the propagation of the Gospel."
      The petition was granted in 1654, and the Legislature instructed them to proceed to purchase the land from the Nonotuck Indians, who, in their way, owned the land from South Hadley Falls to Sugar Loaf Mountain and westward, nine miles into the country, The purchase was easily effected, the Indians were glad to sell, and set their own price, agreeing to accept in return for the land one hundred fathoms of wampum, ten coats, some small presents to the principal sachems, one of whom was a woman, the ploughing of sixteen acres of land in "Hadleigh," and a general concession to them to hunt over the land and to fish in the streams.
      In view of the great value of the land now, this seems trivial, but to them it was considerable. The articles they received were really worth to them, or they conceived them to be so, all the land could be worth to them. The articles they wanted, and they did not want the land for any permanent occupation. The settlers themselves often transferred tract of land to each other for a mere trifle, as for corn or wheat. The land on which the First Church and High School Building now stand, in this

-- page 2 --

These pages are © Laurel O'Donnell, 2005, all rights reserved
Copying these pages without written permission for the purpose of republishing
in print or electronic format is strictly forbidden
This page was last updated on 12 Sep 2005