For thousands
of years, people have been settling in this bend of the
Connecticut River, drawn here by the rich soil, access to the
water, and scenic vistas.
Once covered by
a vast glacier that gave way in time to a large glacial lake
(Lake Hitchcock), the Connecticut River Valley around 10,000 BC
became home to Paleo-Indians who initiated centuries of human
occupation. By the sixteenth century A.D., the Valley sustained
Algonkian peoples who hunted and fished here.
As early as
1614, the residents of the Valley began to encounter the first
representatives of European nations exploring North America. In
time, English colonists driven in part by a search for religious
freedom began to settle the Connecticut Valley. A dissenting
Connecticut congregation under the leadership of Rev. John
Russell in 1659 founded Hadley as an agricultural community on
the east bank of the Connecticut River. John Pynchon purchased
the site of the new settlement, a fertile peninsular plain
defined by a bend in the Connecticut River, from the Nolwotogg
community on behalf of those settlers. The first settlers laid
out this area, formerly known as the Norwottuck Meadow, as the
center of the new settlement before their arrival, with the Town
Common, referred to as "the Broad Street," as the central
feature. The common measured 20 rods wide and one mile long,
with the Connecticut River defining both ends, and was
reportedly based on the original plan of Wethersfield,
Connecticut. Eight-acre home lots were ranged along both sides
of the common, with farmlands behind.
In 1675-76, during King Philip's War, to guard against Indian
attacks, a palisade that ran far enough behind the houses to
include most of the barns and farm buildings enclosed the street
and common. Legend has it that, during that conflict, the town
was saved from destruction when, at a critical moment, William
Goffe—one of judges who had helped execute the King of England,
now hunted as a regicide—who showed up in the midst of the
townspeople, warned them of the danger, and led the town in
fending off the assault, disappearing shortly afterward. Goffe,
later known as "The Angel of Hadley," became the subject of many
legends. As one of the English judges who sentenced King Charles
I to death, he had fled to hide in New England when the English
monarchy was restored in 1660.
Though the years, the common remained the focus of town life.
The meetinghouse occupied a prominent site, animals were
pastured on the open land, militia drills were held
periodically, and Hadley's Liberty Pole was erected there during
the Revolutionary War. Taverns at the north and south ends and
at the center of the common served the needs of passengers on
the ferry, stagecoach, and riverboat routes.
As the number of settlers grew and they dispersed across the
land, the desire for local places of worship also grew. As an
answer to the problems of settlers traveling many miles to
church, the towns of Hatfield, Granby, South Hadley and Amherst
formed from he sprawling town of Hadley. The town continued to
grow as an agricultural town. While farming was most common
during this time, the exporting of everything from produce to
beef to furs grew. Most of the products were taken by flatboat
down the Connecticut River and to the Boston area as well. It
was around 1792 that broomcorn became the dominant crop in
Hadley. So abundant was this crop that Hadley would come to be
known as the nation's broomcorn and broom manufacturing capital.
Broom and brush making became a thriving industry here,
exporting all across New York and New England, and as far as
Ohio.
Over time the
soil that produced so much broomcorn slowly depleted. By 1840,
tobacco would take its place as the major crop as well as seed
onions and other vegetables. The Massachusetts Central Railroad
crossed the northern half of the common in 1887, providing a
faster way for Hadley farmers to ship their produce to market.
The Connecticut Valley Street Railway, laid out along Russell
Street about 1900, made local travel to Northampton and Amherst
easier.
During these
same years, the scenic quality of Hadley landscapes also began
to draw attention. In the early nineteenth century, a painting
of the “oxbow” by Thomas Cole—taken from the top of the Holyoke
Range—made Hadley one of the most famous landscapes in the
nation, and one of the first destinations to emerge in a
burgeoning tourist industry.
It was during the late 1800s that, because of labor shortages
and a drop in land values, Hadley experienced a decline in
farming. It was also about this time that a large number of
Irish, French Canadian and, later, Polish immigrants that were
recruited from Ellis Island for labor purposes settled in
Hadley. It was the Polish immigrants that are credited with
saving Hadley's farmland as they worked the fine Hadley soil
back into fertility. By 1920, asparagus became the popular crop
in Hadley, soon making the town the asparagus capital of the
world. Despite a disease that wiped out much of the crop in the
1950s, asparagus remains a hallmark of the community today.
Today, while commercial development has flourished along Route
9, Hadley remains largely agricultural and residential. Though
malls and commercial businesses now lie along Russell Street on
Route 9 to the east of the town’s center, Hadley has the largest
number of acres in agriculture in the Pioneer Valley, which
includes crops of corn, potatoes, tobacco and scores of other
vegetables. At the turn of the 21st century, Hadley
is emerging as a leader in the preservation of those historic
agricultural landscapes. The Hockanum Rural Historic District
was among the first efforts in Massachusetts to advance the
National Park Service’s aims to document rural districts.
Community groups have partnered with state agencies to
vigorously preserve the scenic assets of the Holyoke Range. A
substantial amount of Hadley farmland has been preserved under
the APR program, and significant effort has been made to
document and preserve the Great Meadow, a unique landscape in
the crook of the Connecticut River that may be the last extant
example of open field agriculture in the United States—named by
PreservationMass, a statewide historic preservation group, one
of the commonwealth’s “10 Most Endangered Historic Resources.”
Today, Hadley is a town that sees an exciting future deeply
rooted in its rich heritage.
