A Land with History: The Silas Bliss Homestead
- dfbkab
- 13 minutes ago
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Before the English settled in this region, it was home to a vibrant and enduring Native American presence. Among the earliest inhabitants were the Agawam, Nipmuc, and Wampanoag tribes, each playing a significant role in shaping the land now known as Wilbraham. The Nipmuc people, in particular, made a lasting impact by using the area as a versatile three-season camping ground, taking advantage of its natural resources for sustenance, shelter, and trade.
Many Native American artifacts have been discovered in and around these mountain areas, particularly on this homestead, where hunting and fishing camps once stood along Twelve Mile Brook on the property's north side. According to local accounts, salmon weighing between seven and twelve pounds were once caught in the brook. These findings offer valuable insights into the daily lives and deep connection Indigenous peoples had with the land. Even today, artifacts occasionally surface, serving as tangible links to this rich cultural heritage.
Just southeast of 218 Mountain Road lies a steatite (soapstone) quarry that played an essential role in the lives of Native Americans for thousands of years. This quarry served as a critical resource for crafting various tools and implements, demonstrating their resourceful use of natural materials. Items such as bowls, pipes, arrowheads, hammers, plow heads, mortars, and pestles were meticulously fashioned from soapstone, showcasing remarkable craftsmanship and ingenuity. These tools not only improved their daily lives but also held value for trade, further underscoring their advanced understanding of resource utilization.
Artifacts from the soapstone quarry, along with others found locally, illustrate the sophistication and adaptability of the Native American cultures that once thrived here. Today, many of these artifacts are preserved and displayed at institutions such as the Quadrangle Museums in Springfield. Additionally, the Old Meeting House Museum in Wilbraham houses a significant collection, ensuring that this heritage remains accessible and appreciated by future generations.
The areas now known as Wilbraham and Hampden were once part of Agawam Plantation, a settlement established by William Pynchon and his associates in 1636. This land, along with surrounding territories, was purchased by Pynchon and his group. In 1640, the settlement's name was officially changed to Springfield, in honor of Pynchon's home village.
Springfield's original boundaries encompassed approximately twenty-five square miles. They extended eastward from the Connecticut River to the present-day borders of Monson and Palmer, westward to what is now Russell, and from the southern limits of Enfield and Warehouse Point in Connecticut northward to the mountains of Holyoke.
The lands situated east of Springfield’s initial settlement were referred to as the Inner and Outward Commons. These areas, part of Pynchon's original purchase, were not assigned to specific Springfield residents. Instead, they remained communal lands, accessible to all, including Native Americans, for hunting, fishing, foraging, and the collection of grass, herbage, and timber.
Around 1684, tensions arose as Sir Edmund Andros, Governor of Massachusetts, threatened to revoke the colony's charter. This raised fears that all unappropriated lands would revert to the ownership of King Charles II of England.
In response, on February 3, 1685, a town meeting was convened where it was decided to divide the land among the 122 heads of families. After setting aside parcels for the revered teacher Pelatiah Glover, as well as for ministry and school lots, 125 lots were created and distributed across three divisions. These grants were provided without compensation, with the sole condition that recipients remain citizens and actively use the land. Failure to meet this condition would result in forfeiture of the property.
The property at 218 Mountain Road was originally part of the Second Division of the Outward Commons, encompassing Lot Numbers 42 through 44. These lots represent some of the earliest recorded land grants in the area, dating back to 1685. Lot Number 42 was granted to Obadiah Cooley Sr., Lot Number 43 to James Warriner Sr., and Lot Number 44 to Daniel Cooley.
These land grants varied in width but shared a common feature: they stretched an impressive four miles in length. Some lots were as narrow as eight feet, emphasizing that these early grants served more as symbolic placeholders than as areas intended for immediate settlement or farming. Their primary purpose was to establish ownership and rights to the land, with the understanding that the parcels could be subdivided, sold, or developed as the need arose.
The pre-incorporation history of Wilbraham begins with the arrival of Nathaniel Hitchcock in the summer of 1730. Leaving the established community of Springfield along the Connecticut River, Hitchcock ventured into the Outward Commons, also known as Springfield Mountain. There, he cleared and cultivated two acres of land, building a modest log hut on what is now the west side of 603 Main Street, Wilbraham. After sowing his two acres of wheat, Hitchcock returned to Springfield to spend the winter.
In May 1731, Hitchcock returned with his wife, Hannah Taylor—whom he had married the previous year—and their four-month-old daughter, also named Hannah. The family embraced the challenge of making this wilderness their year-round home, becoming the first settlers of what would eventually become Wilbraham. Other settlers soon followed.
Five years later, in 1736, Silas Bliss’s father, Abel Bliss, born February 18, 1708, in Springfield, Massachusetts, proved himself a man of strength and determination. On January 16 of that year, he married Jemima Chapin, born January 5, 1705, in what is now Chicopee. Jemima was the daughter of John Chapin and Sarah Bridgman and the great-granddaughter of Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of Springfield’s earliest and most respected settlers.
Shortly after their marriage, Abel and Jemima left Springfield to build a new life in the Outward Commons (present-day Wilbraham), becoming early pioneers in the region. In 1736, they settled in the mountains, where Abel constructed a log cabin near what is now 223 Mountain Road. The site, however, posed daily hardships, it lacked access to a spring or brook, and well digging was rare at the time.
Known for his physical strength, Abel later joined fellow settler Thomas Merrick in cutting a new path from Springfield to the Outward Commons, helping to connect the growing settlement to the outside world. Amid these challenges, Abel and Jemima raised five children while contributing to the development of their new community. Around 1740, Abel helped draft a petition to establish the Outward Commons as a separate precinct, cementing his role in Wilbraham’s early history.
In 1744, Abel Bliss began construction of his second home—an ambitious two-story structure measuring 32 by 40 feet, at what is now 182 Mountain Road, near a brook. At the time, it was the tallest building ever erected in the Mountains. The story of its construction is particularly compelling, as the scale of the residence brought Abel into conflict with the conservative sensibilities of the esteemed Reverend Noah Merrick. His original log cabin, located in what became known as the “old orchard,” served a vital community role as a smallpox hospital, offering care and shelter to afflicted travelers and soldiers passing through the region on the Bay Path, which was located nearby.
Silas Bliss was the fourth child of Abel Bliss and Jemima Chapin Bliss. He was born on April 15, 1743, in Springfield, Hampshire County, within the Massachusetts Bay Colony of British Colonial America. At the time of his birth, his father was 34 years old and his mother was 38. On June 1, 1768, Silas married Miriam Bliss in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. Together, they had at least five sons and five daughters.
The house traditionally known as the “Silas Bliss House,” like its neighbor at 182 Mountain Road, is among the oldest surviving homes in Wilbraham. According to local historian Merrick, the house has long been identified with Silas Bliss, though there is no direct mention of him as the owner in Peck’s History of Wilbraham. Peck records that the house has a stone foundation marked with the year 1769 and suggests that "probably Oliver Bliss lived here at this time." Merrick also dates the house to 1769—the same year Silas Bliss married Miriam, adding to the local tradition connecting the property with Silas.
By the early 1800s, Silas and his family had left Wilbraham for New York. According to Peck, the house became most closely associated with Deacon Aaron Woodward and his family, active members of the First Congregational Church. Deacon Woodward is believed to have settled here around 1803, as church records show that he and his wife were admitted to the congregation on January 1, 1804. Deacon Woodward died in 1840 at the age of 79.
By the mid-19th century, maps from 1850 and 1870 list the property as belonging to a Miss Woodward. The house remained in the Woodward family until sometime before 1894, when it was acquired by B.F. Green, a local farmer who continued to own it well into the 1910s. Census records from 1900 list B.F. Green as a 56-year-old farmer residing at the property.
In the 1940s, Richard Danforth purchased the home, and it remained in the Danforth family until 1998. Since then, the property has changed ownership three times. In recent decades, the surrounding land has seen significant subdivision activity. A sign posted on the property in April 2009 read “Farm for Sale.”
One particularly charming detail about this house is its place in local folklore. In the 1950s, Wilbraham storyteller Henry I. Edson wrote a fictionalized account of the house’s construction, referred to as the raising of the “Silas Bliss House.” Historian Merrick commented that while Edson’s story was "imaginative in unimportant details," it remained "factual in the procedures and customs followed at the time it all happened."
The house is a two-and-a-half-story truncated saltbox in the Georgian style, distinguished by its central chimney. The truncated saltbox form is a relatively uncommon architectural type in western Massachusetts, making this structure particularly notable within the region. The main block of the house is five bays wide and two bays deep. True to the Georgian tradition, the 12-over-12 sash windows are set close beneath the roof eaves, reinforcing the building’s symmetry and classic proportions.
The narrow, double-leaf center entrance is framed by a simple surround and topped with a narrow transom, contributing to the house’s understated elegance. The structure sits on a low brownstone foundation, likely built using stone quarried nearby on Main Street. The basement walls are constructed of fieldstone, sourced directly from the surrounding property.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the home is found in the attic. While the house is of post-and-beam construction with hand-hewn timbers, several of the beams in the attic are rough-hewn logs that appear to have been repurposed from an earlier structure. It is believed that these logs originated from Abel Bliss’s original log cabin, built in 1736 and located diagonally across the road and further up the hill. This type of material reuse was common practice in the colonial period, reflecting both practicality and resourcefulness.
Another unique feature is a concealed doorway located inside the second-floor bedroom closet. This hidden passage leads directly into the front vestibule, exiting onto the staircase midway between the first and second floors. This feature is rumored to be an escape if the home were to be invaded by hostile Native Americans. This seems unlikely, as most Native Americans are believed to have vacated the area around 1675, likely as a result of the disruption and displacement caused by King Philip’s War.
This home features gunstock posts and corners, a traditional post-and-beam framing technique named for the flared shape of the corner posts, which resemble a gunstock. A continuation of British construction methods dating back to the 13th century, gunstock posts were designed to support the heavy joints where wall plates, girts, and roof framing meet.
In two-story homes, these corner posts often extend the full height of the structure, flaring at both the first and second floors to support the upper framing. To achieve this, builders used the wider upper portion of a tree trunk, reversing it so the thicker end was at the top. The flare typically widened by 2 to 4 inches. While often hidden by plaster or trim in formal rooms, gunstock corners remain a hallmark of early timber-frame craftsmanship.
This home features wide Eastern White Pine boards throughout, some people today would call them “King’s Boards.” In the late 1600s, the Crown claimed all large white pines (24" diameter or more) near navigable waterways for the Royal Navy, marking them with a “broad arrow.” This law, part of the Mast Preservation Clause of 1691, excluded private land but caused widespread resentment among colonists who relied on pine for building and trade.
Valued for ship masts, Eastern White Pine was strong, lightweight, and rot-resistant. As British demand grew, so did enforcement, sparking colonial defiance. Settlers illegally cut reserved trees and even staged acts of resistance, like the Pine Tree Riot. The tree became a symbol of independence, featured on early American flags, and played a key role in the lead-up to the Revolution.
Though Wilbraham lay within 10 miles of the navigable Connecticut River, the Outward Commons was privately granted land as of February 3, 1685, exempting it from royal restrictions. Settlers used these pines freely, crafting homes with wide planks for flooring, paneling, and roofing.
In 1998, an extensive archaeological study was carried out at the Silas Bliss Homestead, lasting nearly five months. Numerous sections of the property were carefully excavated and mapped, revealing a remarkable assortment of artifacts spanning every period of the area’s historic settlement. Conducted in collaboration with the Springfield Museums, the project uncovered everything from Native American tools and spear points to fragments of leather footwear, pottery shards, antique bottles, and early farming implements. Today, this fascinating collection is proudly preserved by the Atheneum Society of Wilbraham and can be viewed at their museum, located at 450 Main Street in Wilbraham.
The first road to pass through the Outward Commons was the Old Bay Path, laid out in the early 1640s as a key route connecting Boston to Springfield. This original path ran behind what would later become the Bliss property. In 1732, the road was realigned slightly west of the site.
By the 1740s, the Town of Springfield laid out additional roads branching off the Old Bay Path, extending south to the Connecticut line. These included:
West Road – now Main Street in Wilbraham, Wilbraham Road in Hampden, and Somers Road in Hampden
Middle Road – now Mountain Road, Ridge Road, and Peak Road in Wilbraham; North and South Roads in Hampden
East or Third Road – now Crane Hill and Glendale Roads in Wilbraham and Hampden, as well as Monson, Cross, and Scantic Roads in Hampden
These early roads shaped the foundation of travel, settlement, and development in the region.
For more on the history of Wilbraham, including stories connected to the Bliss family, see Historic Tales of Wilbraham by David F. Bourcier, published by The History Press in May 2025.
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