In the tumultuous landscape of seventeenth-century New England, a pervasive belief in the existence of witches gripped the minds of virtually every inhabitant. The era bore witness to a grim chapter in history where hundreds of individuals found themselves ensnared in the web of accusations surrounding the practice of witchcraft. The accused were predominantly women, and occasionally men, who were alleged to have “signed the Devil’s Book” and were purportedly carrying out nef

In the years following the American Revolution, South Wilbraham was a small but growing rural parish where farms, scattered workshops, and the steady rhythm of Congregational worship shaped daily life. Into that setting came Reverend Moses Warren, a Harvard-educated minister whose life would become closely connected with the spiritual and educational development of the community for more than four decades. Moses Warren was born in 1758 in Upton, Massachusetts, the son of De

Near the Center Bridge in South Wilbraham, an area that later became the town of Hampden, the Scantic River supported a small but active industrial village during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Along both banks of the river, modest workshops emerged, drawing on waterpower to sustain the local economy during the formative years of southern Wilbraham. 1855 Map of South Wilbraham. Digital Commonwealth One of the earliest known shops in the Center Village sto

The earliest burial grounds in what are now the towns of Wilbraham and Hampden date to the colonial era. The first, established in 1736, is known today as Adams Cemetery in Wilbraham. The second was laid out in 1755 on the southern slope of Springfield Mountain, then part of Springfield’s Outward Commons, and is now called Old Hampden Cemetery. Together, these sacred places have silently witnessed centuries of life, loss, and remembrance, standing as lasting symbols of commun

From 1731 until 1895, a single family owned a tract of land that today lies along the Wilbraham–Hampden town line, with the house itself standing just within Hampden on the east side of what is now Wilbraham Road. For more than a century and a half, the Hitchcock family shaped this landscape, establishing one of the earliest domestic sites in the southern portion of the Outward Commons. The land originated as Lot No. 45 of the Outward Commons on the east side of the Great Riv

Known locally as “The Fort,”  this modest house carries a history far larger than its size suggests. Built about 1780, the structure began its life not at its present address, but along Chapin Road in what was then South Wilbraham, near the banks of the Scantic River. By 1810, the main portion of the house stood on the left side of the driveway to what is now 19 Chapin Road, positioned much like a gatekeeper’s lodge guarding the road and river crossing. Its placement explains

The southern portion of present-day Hampden, bordering the Connecticut towns of Somers and Stafford, was once known in colonial times as the District of Wales. The origin of this name has never been satisfactorily explained, and no surviving records clearly identify its meaning or source. What is known is that the district formed a narrow strip of land, approximately one mile wide at its eastern end and slightly less at the western, that lay within the jurisdiction of Massach

Nine Mile Pond, lying quietly along Boston Road in Wilbraham, is far older than the town itself. Its story begins at the end of the last Ice Age, roughly 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, when massive continental glaciers still covered New England. As the climate warmed, the ice did not retreat evenly. Great blocks of glacial ice broke free, became buried beneath layers of sand and gravel deposited by rushing meltwater, and slowly melted in place. When the ice vanished, it left beh

In the years following the American Revolutionary War, cash was scarce in the young nation. Coins were in short supply, paper money was unstable, and formal banks were few. In rural towns like the South Village of Wilbraham, later incorporated as Hampden, daily life and local commerce depended largely on barter and personal credit. Instead of exchanging money at every transaction, neighbors kept running accounts with one another, carefully recording work performed, goods exch

Among the earliest and most cherished artifacts of the Outward Commons, later Wilbraham, and eventually the town of Hampden, is the old Langdon grandfather’s clock. Long before factories, railroads, or public time signals, this tall, weight-driven clock served as the principal timekeeper for the entire west side of the southern district. For decades, it regulated daily life, marking the hours for work, worship, meals, and rest in a frontier community where time was otherwise

Just south of Rattlesnake Peak, along the rugged ridgeline that marks the western edge of the Wilbraham Mountains, rises a lesser-known but deeply storied height known as Mount Vision. Today it lies within the town of Hampden, Massachusetts, but for much of its early history it was part of the southern district of Wilbraham. Standing at approximately 934 feet above sea level, Mount Vision forms part of the same upland terrain that shaped settlement patterns, travel routes, an

Spec Pond and the surrounding area in Wilbraham possess a layered history shaped by geology, Indigenous use, colonial settlement, agriculture, and transportation. In colonial times, the pond lay just north of the larger Nine Mile Pond, which took its name from its distance, nine miles, from the early settlement of Springfield on the east side of the Connecticut River, near the town’s first meetinghouse. The origin of the name “Spectacle Pond,” now shortened to Spec Pond, is u

In colonial New England, taverns were not simply places to drink. From the mid-1600s through the late 1700s, they functioned as essential public institutions. They served food and drink, offered lodging, hosted meetings, transmitted news, and supported local government and commerce. Nowhere was this more evident than in frontier and crossroads communities like Springfield and its surrounding upland towns, including Wilbraham and Palmer. Taverns appeared early in New England’s

In 1630, a fleet of seventeen ships set sail from England, carrying about 1,600 settlers to the Massachusetts Bay, a land then largely untamed, where forests stretched unbroken, and rivers ran swift and wild. Among these pioneers were men and women of remarkable energy and resolve: John Winthrop, chosen governor of the new colony, and William Pynchon, a wealthy and educated patentee. Both men carried authority and vision: Winthrop as a political and religious leader, Pynchon

Joseph Whiting Stock (January 30, 1815 – 1855) was one of the most prolific itinerant portrait painters in nineteenth-century New England. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, into a modest family of twelve children, Stock’s life and career were shaped by a tragic accident that might have ended his prospects altogether. At the age of eleven, an oxcart fell on him, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Rather than abandon the hope of self-support, Stock turned

After the decline of the First Baptist Church in the northeastern section of Wilbraham, organized religious life in that part of town gradually faded. By 1807, the church was reported to have “lost its visibility,” and its meetinghouse was ultimately destroyed by fire in 1833. The establishment of a new Baptist congregation at Colton Hollow in 1794 likely contributed to this decline, drawing members away from the earlier church. For many years afterward, no permanent house of

In a quiet hollow just off Woodland Dell Road lies one of Wilbraham’s most enduring historic landscapes. Woodland Dell Cemetery, shaded by mature trees and shaped by gently rolling and uneven terrain, has served the town for more than a century and a half. Often passed without notice, it is a place where Wilbraham’s history is written in stone. Woodland Dell Cemetery and Merrick Brook in the early 1900s. Old Meeting House Museum The origins of Woodland Dell Cemetery trace to

Carl Bernie Sundberg, born in Torrington, Connecticut, was a Korean War Army veteran and a longtime resident of Wilbraham. He attended the University of Bridgeport, where he studied Industrial Design, and went on to build a distinguished career as a designer and master model maker for International Silver Company. He later served as Art Director at U.S. Envelope and owned and operated several successful ventures, including Sun Associates, Sundberg Castings, and Marketing Desi

Long before Wilbraham became a separate town in 1763, and long before Hampden followed in 1878, this region was known as the Outward Commons of Springfield, a stretch of fertile farmland that would later include Main Street, Wilbraham Road, Stony Hill Road, Somers Road, and scattered homesteads. By the mid-18th century, the Outward Commons was emerging as a community of its own, settled by hardy farmers and skilled craftsmen. Though somewhat isolated from the bustle of Spring

The story of Dr. Samuel Fisk Merrick is inseparable from the long course of Wilbraham’s history itself, a family line reaching back to the earliest days of Massachusetts settlement and a life that spanned the colonial era, the American Revolution, and the young republic that followed. Samuel Fisk Merrick was born on September 13, 1751, in Wilbraham, Hampden County, Massachusetts, the fourth child of Reverend Noah Merrick and Abigail Fiske. His father was forty years old at th