From the District of Wales to the American West

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 Massachusetts but outside the bounds of any incorporated town.

For many years, the District of Wales existed in a kind of administrative limbo. It was not until the 1770s that the territory was formally annexed to the mother town of Wilbraham. Determining when settlement first occurred in this area is difficult, in part because land grants here were issued directly by the Massachusetts General Court in Boston rather than through Springfield, as was customary elsewhere in the region. This unusual arrangement likely explains why deeds for early properties in the district are scarce or absent from the Hampden County Registry of Deeds.

Henry Edson's Historical Map showing a portion of the District of Wales. Old Meeting House Museum

Among the earliest recipients of land grants in the District of Wales were Capt. Thomas Colton, Capt. Isaac Colton, and Rev. Stephen Williams, D.D., all of Longmeadow. Rev. Williams is best remembered as the “Boy Captive of Old Deerfield,” taken during the 1704 raid and later ransomed. In his will, he refers specifically to his “Wales” farm, confirming both the name and the importance of the property.

It is believed that three houses once stood on the Williams holdings. One of these was located on the east side of present-day South Road, roughly halfway between the crest of the hill and the Somers line. Whether this house was built by John Williams, the minister’s son, is uncertain, but it clearly stood on land he owned for a time. This modest dwelling gained later prominence as the birthplace of Andrew Jackson Davis, one of the most remarkable figures to emerge from the area.

Andrew J. Davis was born on April 25, 1819, the son of Asa Davis and Celinda Allard, who had been married in 1810 by Rev. Moses Warren. The family lived in the South Road house, whose cellar hole remained visible into the late 1950s. Davis’s lineage tied him firmly to early Hampden families. Joseph Chaffee, among the town’s earliest settlers, built one of the first houses along Chapin Road. Chaffee’s daughter Sarah married Isaac Morris, and their daughter Hannah later married John Davis, a Revolutionary War veteran. John and Hannah Davis, buried in Hampden’s Old Cemetery, were the grandparents of Andrew J. Davis.

Andrew J. Davis. Tom Nichols

By the age of thirteen, Andrew Davis had completed all the formal schooling he would receive. He left home to work in a Boston dry goods establishment and soon embraced the westward ambition so often associated with the nineteenth century. At just sixteen, he was in business for himself in Madison, Indiana. By the 1850s, he had established what may have been one of the earliest chain retail operations in the country, with stores spread across Iowa. Following the Black Hawk War, Davis purchased approximately 800 acres of prime Iowa farmland from Native Americans and developed it with notable success.

Restless and enterprising, Davis later traveled to California and then to Montana Territory in 1863. There, he established the region’s first flour mill and introduced its first reaper and threshing machine. His ventures expanded into livestock, and in one extraordinary year, he sold 12,000 head of cattle to a single buyer for more than $400,000, then considered the largest individual livestock transaction in Montana. That same year, he sold an additional 7,000 head for $235,000.

Davis later turned to mining, first in silver and then in copper. In 1881, he sold the Lexington silver mine for $1,000,000 in cash. His copper interests eventually became his primary focus, and the company in which he was a principal partner was absorbed by the Anaconda Company in 1910, solidifying his legacy as one of the great mining entrepreneurs of the American West.

In 1881, the First National Bank of Butte was established, with Davis owning 657 of its 1,000 shares. By 1884, he had become its sole owner. During the national bank holiday of 1933, journalist David Lawrence remarked from Washington that only three banks in the nation stood out for their strength; remarkably, one of them was located in a mining town: the First National Bank of Butte. The bank’s 75th anniversary history, published in 1952, provides valuable insight into Davis’s financial career and preserves one of the finest photographs of him.

Andrew J. Davis died on March 11, 1890. His body was returned from Butte to Connecticut and buried in the North Cemetery in Somers, alongside his parents.

Closer to home, records indicate that John Williams owned two houses along the old stagecoach road east of South Road. The Wilbraham tax list of 1771 assessed him for two dwellings, making him the only resident of South Wilbraham at that time to hold more than one house.

The stagecoach road itself was once a vital artery of travel. Entering South Wilbraham from the east, it crossed Rocky Dundee Road near the summit of Kiln Hill, continued west across Chapin Road, crossed South Road near the Connecticut line, and then turned south toward Somers. This route formed part of the early Boston-to-Hartford stage line, one of the earliest long-distance stage operations in America. Among its proprietors was Levi Pease of Somers. The journey took three days, with overnight stops in Worcester and Palmer.

Daniel Chaffee, grandfather of Lucy (Chaffee) Alden, later recalled that the first four-wheeled wagon he ever saw was a stagecoach traveling this road, likely around 1793. As a young boy living near present-day South Road, he reportedly walked up to watch the astonishing sight. By 1828, however, the road had fallen into neglect. That year, several local families, including the Woods, Firmin, Chapin, and Stacy households, brought suit against the town for failing to maintain it, likely because they depended on it for access to Somers markets.

In 1794, John Williams sold his property to Stephen Parsons, and in 1808, Stephen and Oliver Parsons conveyed it to Solomon Fuller of Somers. Over the years, ownership passed through many hands, including Calvin Pitkin, Samuel Chapin, Amasa and Maria Switzer, Maria Pease, Lucius Winslow, Willie Pease, Otis Chapin, and A. H. Thompson.

One of the old houses on South Road was purchased by Silas Cooley and moved intact to his property in Somers. The two Williams houses, one later known as the Switzer house, either burned or collapsed in the early nineteenth century. By the mid-twentieth century, their cellar holes were marked only by clusters of lilac bushes.

Finally, it should be noted that the shared name “Wales” has long caused confusion between the town of Wales, Massachusetts, and the District of Wales in Hampden. Despite the similarity, the two are distinct in origin and history, connected only by name and by the enduring mystery of how that name first came to be.