. The history of Springfield in Massachusetts, for the young; being also in some part the history of other towns and cities in the county of Hampden. nives. Why did the settlers choose this place right here in thevalley, close by a tribe of savages, instead of establishingthemselves on the highlands or remote from the river? First,because the land, all Massacksick, Usquaiok and Nayasset,was excellent land for cultivation; and, again, because beingnear the river was like being today on the line of a Indians were continually going up and down the streamin their canoes and, by the ri
. The history of Springfield in Massachusetts, for the young; being also in some part the history of other towns and cities in the county of Hampden. nives. Why did the settlers choose this place right here in thevalley, close by a tribe of savages, instead of establishingthemselves on the highlands or remote from the river? First,because the land, all Massacksick, Usquaiok and Nayasset,was excellent land for cultivation; and, again, because beingnear the river was like being today on the line of a Indians were continually going up and down the streamin their canoes and, by the river, beaver and other skins couldbe sent away to market and other goods brought from Bostonor England. Mr. Pynchon was a shrewd trader and made muchmoney by buying skins of the Indians to send away. Thebeaver, almost humanly wise in building its curious dams,has been, of course, long since gone, and is not now foundnearer than northern Maine; but in those days, the regionabout and above Westfield was the heart of the beaver country,for the valley trade. The otter, (page 18) a fish-eating animal,was once common, but is now very rare A Settlement with Wellsweep and Virginia Rail Fence. THE SETTLEMENT 25 Just where the houses of the settlers should be on thisgreat tract of land which they bought was, of course, an im-portant question. At first they expected to settle on theAgawam meadows, and, in fact, had put up one house there;but the Indians told them that the meadows were flooded inhigh water; so they decided in favor of the east side of theGreat River, as they began to call the Connecticut, andthey did, in fact, call it by no other name for a hundred Round Hill and above, down to Mill river lay a goodstretch of plough land, good for corn and wheat, and rightacross the stream was ample pasture. This meadow land wasbounded on the east by a long narrow marsh, so full of hum-mocks that they began to call it hassocky marsh. Itoccupied land between the prese
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