History of Whately, Massachusetts, USA

Whately, Massachusetts
Franklin county. This town lies on the west side of Connecticut river, 9 miles N. from Northampton, 11 S. from Greenfield, and 92 W. by N. from Boston. Incorporated in 1771. Population in 1837, 1,140. There are some pine plains, and a part of Sugar Loaf mountain extends into the town from Deerfield; still there are some tracts of good intervale land on the Connecticut, and smaller streams, by which it is watered.

The number of sheep in Whately, in 1837, was 1,650; weight of wool, 4,953 lbs.: value, $2,862. There are 3 woolen mills in the town, 3 tanneries, 3 distilleries, and manufactures of gimblets, augers, hammers, brooms, brushes, palm-leaf hats, boots, shoes, pocket-books, &c. Annual value, about $90,000.

The territory comprising this town was a part of the original grant of Hadley, from which it was separated, with Hatfield, in 1761, with which town it remained one hundred years, till its incorporation in 1771. The Rev. Rufus Wells, the first Congregational minister, was ordained here in 1771; he died in 1834, at the age of ninety. Rev. Lemuel P. Bates, a native of Blandford, Scotland, was settled as colleague with Mr. Wells in 1822; he resigned in. 1832, and was succeeded by Rev. John Ferguson in 1836. There is a small Baptist church in the western part of the town.

There is a considerable quantity of interval land on Connecticut river, but it is not of the first quality. The town Street, which passes by the Congregational church, runs parallel with the river about two miles westward; between this street and the river there is an extensive tract of swampy land, called Whately Swamp, extending from north to south almost the entire length of the town. Westward of the street above...

Whately, a post-township in Franklin co., Massachusetts, on Connecticut river, and intersected by Connecticut River railroad, 88 miles W. by N. from Boston. Pop., 1101.

Whately is a pleasant farming town lying on the west bank of the Connecticut River, in the southern border of Franklin County, about 116 miles west of Boston and 10 miles south of Greenfield. The Connecticut River Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad run through the town. The base-line of the Trigonometrical Survey of the State lies across the eastern section.

Conway and Deerfield bound the town on the north; Sunderland, on the east; Hatfield, on the south; and Williamsburg and Conway, on the west. The northern line is irregular. The assessed area is 12,211 acres; of which 2,807 are forests of chestnut, maple, beech and spruce. The land is low and swampy next the Connecticut, but high and broken in the west. Mount Esther, in the north of the northwest section, has an altitude of 995 feet; and at the southwest is another elevation called Grass Hill. The scenery is further beautified by Belden's, Moore's and Bardwell's ponds. Mill River (called by the Indians...

Whately, whât'le, a post-village of Franklin co., Mass., in Whately township, on the Connecticut River Railroad, 26 miles N. of Springfield. It has 2 churches, and manufactures of brooms and brush-handles. Pop. of the township, 958.

Whately, a post-village of Franklin co., Mass., in Whately township (town), on the Boston and Maine and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rs., 26 miles N. of Springfield. Pop. of the town in 1900, 769.