Place:Pelham, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States

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NamePelham
Alt namesEquivalent Landssource: USGS, GNIS Digital Gazetteer (1994) GNIS25001995
Pelham Heightssource: USGS, GNIS Digital Gazetteer (1994) GNIS25001995
Stoddards Townsource: USGS, GNIS Digital Gazetteer (1994) GNIS25001995
TypeTown
Coordinates42.383°N 72.4°W
Located inHampshire, Massachusetts, United States
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Pelham is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,280 at the 2020 census. Its ZIP Code is shared with Amherst.

Pelham is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Pelham (pronounced "PEL-am"; the "h" is silent) was part of the Equivalent Lands compromise, and was first settled in 1738 by mostly Presbyterian Scotch-Irish immigrants. It was officially incorporated in 1743. The town is named for the Pelham family; Henry Pelham was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time of the town's incorporation. The town is best known as being home to Daniel Shays, leader of Shays' Rebellion, a series of protests against crushing austerity measures in Massachusetts during 1786 and 1787. The rebellion, planned in Conkey's Tavern in town, drew support from many towns in central and western Massachusetts, but it met its practical end when the angry farmers' force refused to fight Governor Bowdoin's army and they were dispersed in a rout in nearby Petersham. Pelham also holds the distinction of having the oldest town hall in continuous use in the United States. A town meeting is held there for that primary purpose each year.

Pelham's boundaries have changed twice in its history. Originally a much larger town, rectangular in shape (except for a small extension southward taking up part of the modern area of Knight's Corner) and extending eastward to the top of Prescott Hill (where Daniel Shays once lived), the land east of the West Branch of the Swift River was annexed by the town of Prescott in the latter half of the nineteenth centuries (maps made in 1855 and 1862 both show this land still belonging to Pelham). The landscape would change once again, however, when the Quabbin Reservoir was formed along the branches of the Swift River. The reservoir filled along the river, and protected lands along its edge became part of the Quabbin Reservation. It was at this time as well that the towns of the valley were dis-incorporated, and a portion of Enfield which now constitutes the town's southeast corner (roughly east of Caldwell Brook and Knight's Corner) was given to the town. Because the reservoir divided the town from its old lands in Prescott, however, that portion of land was not returned to the town, but given to New Salem instead.

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