Homes for Sale, Real Estate Agents and Information about
Cheshire, MA
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information about
Cheshire, MA.
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Cheshire
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We have also included some information about
Cheshire, MA below
that we hope you will find to be helpful.
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Population
3,401 people. (266th in Massachusetts.)
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The Town of Cheshire has a unique monument to a famous cheese, and an
interesting history. The valley town was founded in the 1760's by Baptists
from Rhode Island, the first settlers in the region who were not of the
established Puritan Church. The early colonists were mostly descendants of
those who had followed Roger Williams to Rhode Island in their quest for
religious freedom. One of the prime movers of the emigration was Colonel
Joab Stafford, who built his house on Stafford Hill and led the men of
Cheshire into war during the Revolution. The troops from Cheshire
distinguished themselves at the Battle of Bennington.
Cheshire was incorporated in 1793, and its residents were strongly partisan
in the election battles of the country's early days. The election campaign
which put Thomas Jefferson into the presidency was hard fought and Cheshire
was the only Berkshire town which favored Jefferson. When their candidate
won the election, the town searched for a way to show their support and pay
a tribute to their new president. Because Cheshire specialized in dairying
and making cheese, they decided to send a gift to the president of a
Cheshire cheese, but one using curds from every farmer in town. The
resulting huge cheese was four feet in diameter, 18 inches thick and
weighed 1,235 pounds. It was moved on a sled drawn by six horses when it
was shipped off to Washington, D.C. by water, where it drew a personal
letter of thanks from President Jefferson. One of the two monuments in
Cheshire commemorates the cheese; the other memorializes the founders of
the town. The Pioneer Monument is on Stafford Hill and is a fieldstone
replica of Benedict Arnold's Norse Mill in Newport, Rhode Island. The view
from the monument is arguably one of the most beautiful views in the
Berkshires.
The town had early forges and saw mills, grist mills and tanneries, and in
1812, the Cheshire Crown Glass factory opened as did a triphammer
operation. The town also boasted the first factory in western
Massachusetts to manufacture cotton making machinery. Daniel Brown put 14
water looms into his cotton factory in 1827 and the making of shoes, cotton
fabric and cheese were the mainstays of the town's 19th century economy.
The town's reputation for religious diversity continued, and in 1885 there
were only 1,537 people in Cheshire but there were four different churches.
The rural town has ben taking on recreational and residential overtones in
modern times, with 225 acres of open slopes and wooded trails for skiers on
Farnhams. There was in the 1940's a three-quarter of a mile straight run
at the Cheshire skiing area. In addition, there has been good fishing in
the South Branch of the Hoosic, which originates in Hoosac Lake in the
town.
Northwestern Massachusetts, bordered by Adams on the north, Savoy and Windsor on
the east, Dalton on the southeast, Lanesborough on the southwest, and New
Ashford on the northwest. Cheshire is about 10 miles north of Pittsfield, 138
miles northwest of Boston, and 157 miles from New York City.
Narrative compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
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Cheshire, MA:
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