Northfield

History

The village of Skakeat/Squakheag was the site of modern-day Northfield and was home to the Nashaway Nipmuc and Sokoki Abenaki. Northfield was first colonized by European settlers in 1673 and was officially incorporated in 1723. Indian Land Deeds for Hampshire County, Including Later Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampden Counties, gives the name of the otan (village) as Squakheag (a Nipmuk name), also Skakeat (Sokoki Abenaki). John Eliot, in his Brief Narrative...History of the Nipmuk, attributes this village to the Nipmuc. The territory was successfully defended a number of times by Native Americans. The Battle on Beer's Plain occurred in Nothfield in 1675. Peter Jethro, a Praying Indian, a son of Tantamous, a Nipmuc originally from Concord who was reputed to be a pauwau, spent a brief stint in the Northfield area as a Christian minister before a massacre plunged him into King Philip's War. During the war, Peter Jethro freed a settler who was being held captive near Northfield. As a result of the conflict, New England settlers were occasionally taken north to Quebec, held as hostages by the, causing the town to revert to American Indian control a few times. Eventually, conflicts with the Native American population ceased after most of the native population was displaced and/or sold into slavery as a result of King Philip's War and after a series of massacres of local Indian villages. During Dummer's War, on August 13, 1723, Gray Lock raided Northfield, and four warriors killed two citizens near the town. The next day they attacked Joseph Stevens and his four sons in Rutland. Stevens escaped, two boys were killed, and the other two sons were captured. Much of Northfield's development in the late nineteenth century was spurred by the work of evangelist Dwight Lyman…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  10,102
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,784
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  8,369
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,144
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,920
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  7,713
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  7,431
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  7,237

Largest nearby schools

• Franklin County Technical
  High · Turners Falls · 602 students · 10.6:1 ratio
• Dexter Park
  Elementary · Orange · 294 students · 15.5:1 ratio
• Pioneer Valley Regional
  High · Northfield · 256 students · 13.5:1 ratio
• Fisher Hill
  Elementary · Orange · 230 students · 13.5:1 ratio
• Bernardston Elementary
  Elementary · Bernardston · 204 students · 11.3:1 ratio
• Northfield Elementary
  Elementary · Northfield · 200 students · 12.5:1 ratio
• Erving Elementary
  Elementary · Erving · 129 students · 7.2:1 ratio
• Gill Elementary
  Elementary · Gill · 105 students · 13.1:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2023-12-23
  5 km SW of Chichester, New Hampshire
• M 2.8 — 2016-03-21
  4 km ESE of Warner, New Hampshire
• M 2.61 — 2013-10-11
  New Hampshire
• M 3.15 — 2010-09-26
  2 km SW of Canterbury, New Hampshire
• M 2.5 — 2007-10-19
  2 km WSW of Littleton Common, Massachusetts
• M 2.8 — 2002-09-28
  2 km N of Wilton, New Hampshire