Western Mass History

This episode is the first in a three-part series, exploring the history of King Philip's War in Western Massachusetts. This episode focuses on the start of the war in the summer and fall of 1675, with an emphasis on the Battle of Bloody Brook in South Deerfield. The battle occurred in modern-day South Deerfield on September 18, 1675, when Nipmuc, Wampanoag, and Pocumtuck warriors ambushed a group of English soldiers. The battle was one of the deadliest of the war for the English, and it was subsequently commemorated with what may have been the first European war memorial in British North America. Sources for this episode included the following books and other resources: King Philip's War by Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougias A History of Deerfield Massachusetts by George Sheldon King Philip's War by George W. Ellis and John E. Morris The History of King Philip's War by Increase Mather Soldiers in King Philip's War by George M. Bodge A History of the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts by Josiah Howard Temple and George Sheldon Travels in New-England and New York Vol. 2 by Timothy Dwight IV Historical Collections by John Warner Barber An Address Delivered at Bloody Brook by Edward Everett "(Re) Making History: Memory, Commemoration, and the Bloody Brook Monuments" by Barbara Mathews and Peter A. Thomas

One of Springfield's best-known claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of basketball. However, the city also played an important role in the early development of the sport of football. It was here that many of the sport's rules were established, and it was also here that the sport nearly met a premature demise due to a particularly violent college football game. In this episode, Western Mass History podcast host Derek Strahan is joined by local historian and football official Tim Casey for a discussion of Springfield's involvement in the early history of football. For more information about the key sites discussed in this episode, check out the following articles on Lost New England: https://lostnewengland.com/2013/09/massasoit-house-springfield/ https://lostnewengland.com/2014/03/hampden-park-springfield-mass/ And, for more information on the early development of the sport of football, the following books and articles are great resources: Corbett, Bernard, and Paul Simpson. “When Men Were Men and Football Was Brutal.” Yale Alumni Magazine , 2004. http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2004_11/football.html.  Des Jardins, Julie. Walter Camp: Football and the modern man. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.  Sumner, David E. Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football’s Greatest Pioneer. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2021.  Watterson, John Sayle. College football: History, spectacle, controversy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

During the 1750s and 1760s, a stone carver in Hampton, Connecticut created a number of bizarre gravestones in the town and in a few other neighboring communities. He abruptly stopped producing these stones after 1769, but then in the 1770s his work started to appear some 60 miles away in the Western Massachusetts towns of Becket and Worthington. Until now, his identity has eluded gravestone scholars, who dubbed him the "Hampton Indian" because the feathered wings on the stones bear some resemblance to a Native American headdress. This episode explores the style of his gravestone carvings, his sources of inspiration, and a theory as to his identity, which is based on several key pieces of circumstantial evidence. For further reading on New England gravestones and carvers, I would highly recommend: Colonial Burying Grounds of Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them by Dr. James A. Slater Gravestones of Early New England and the Men Who Made Them by Harriette Merrifield Forbes Graven Images by Allan Ludwig The Masks of Orthodoxy by Peter Benes Memorials for Children of Change: The Art of Early New England Stonecarving by Dickran and Ann Tashjian Back issues of Markers, published by the Association for Gravestone Studies The Farber Gravestone Collection And if you are interested in more of my content on New England gravestones, you can follow my account @gravestonesofnewengland on Instagram and Facebook.

Western Massachusetts is comprised of 101 cities and towns, which were incorporated between 1636 and 1894. Some of these are fairly self-explanatory, but others are a little more unusual. Ever wonder why there is a Florida in Massachusetts? Or Peru? Belchertown? Ware? And what happened to Murrayfield, Gagetown, Norwich, and Partridgefield? This episode explores the history and politics of municipal nomenclature in Western Massachusetts, looking at how - and why - the towns got their names. For more information, check out these resources: Historical Atlas of Massachusetts An Essay on the Origin of the Names of the Towns in Massachusetts Cover image from New Map of Massachusetts by Nathaniel Dearborn (1840)

On September 3, 1902, Theodore Roosevelt was riding in a carriage in Pittsfield when it was struck by a trolley. His Secret Service bodyguard was killed, and Roosevelt himself narrowly escaped serious injury. This episode explores the causes of the accident, the subsequent investigations and criminal charges, and also looks at the possible long-term effects of this accident. If you are interested in learning more, the sources for this episode included Edmund Morris's biography Theodore Rex, along with a number of contemporary newspaper articles. Among the most helpful of these were the September 4, 5, and 6 issue of the Springfield Republican, and the September 4 issue of the Boston Globe. For photographs of the accident scene, including the one used as the cover image for this episode, see the Theodore Roosevelt Collection, which is available online through the Harvard Library.