Saturday, April 3, 2021

Erving

From Wikipedia: Erving is located along the Mohawk Trail. The area was part of the Pocomtuc Indian Nation, whose villages included Squawkeag in what is now Northfield, and Peskeompscut in what is now Turners Falls. Eventually, most of the native population was displaced and/or sold into slavery as a result of King Philip's War and a series of massacres of local Indian villages. Subsequently, Erving was first settled in 1801 and officially incorporated—it being the last unincorporated land in Massachusetts—in 1838. What is now Erving was once the farm of John Erving, the first colonial in the area. Noted in the 19th century for timber and grazing, the town had seven sawmills, two chair factories, one pail factory, one children's carriage factory, and one bit-brace factory. Large numbers of railroad ties and telegraph poles were cut in the abundant forests here, as many as 1,495,000 in one year. The Millers River, a tributary of the Connecticut River, passes through the town. The terrain of Erving is hilly and rugged; most of the developed area of the town is located along the river. Northfield Mountain and its peaks occupy much of the northern two-thirds of the town. Erving is situated along Route 2, a heavily traveled state highway.