Excerpt from History of Western Massachusetts, Vol. 1: The Counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire; Embracing an Outline, or General History, of the Section, an Account of Its Scientific Aspects and Leading Interests, and Separate Histories of the One Hundred Towns; Parts I and II It is hardly necessary to ofi'cr an apology for the division, historical and geographical, of Massachusetts, indicated iii the title of this work. Old Hampshire County, extending originally from the uncertain East ern line of New York on the West, into the present territory of Wor cester County, on the East, and occupying, throughout that distance, the entire width of the Massachusetts patent, was, at first, in almost everything but the name, a colony of itself. The settlements were planted in the wilderness, and the waste of woods that lay between them and the seat of authority of the Massachusetts Bay, was hardly less to be dreaded, or easier of passage, than the waste of waters' that interposed between the Bay and the Mother Country. Its interests have been developed by themselves. Its institutions, habits and cus toms have sprung out of its own peculiar wants, circumstances and spirit, and the history of Western Massachusetts is but the history of the old mother county and her children. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.