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English colonists moving up the Connecticut River
settled in Hatfield about 1660 on land that had been
purchased from the nearby Native American Indian village
of Norwottuck. The location was desirable because of the
large amounts of relatively flat, rich, and stone-free
agriculture land and the small waterfall which could
power a mill on what became known as the Mill River. For
a decade the settlement was legally part of the Town of
Hadley, but in 1670 Hatfield separated from Hadley and
built its own meeting house which served as the center
of government and the Congregational Church. During King
Philip’s War in 1675-76 between the colonists of New
England and the Native American Indians, the settlement
on Main Street was surrounded by a stockade, many men
from Hatfield fought in campaigns up and down the valley
and fought off three attacks on the village.
During the eighteenth century the town prospered and
the growing population of the western and northern
regions of the town eventually separated to become the
Towns of Williamsburg and Whately. Enterprising Hatfield
farmers fattened cattle that were sold to markets in
larger towns and cities. The reputation of Hatfield beef
was sufficient to cause General Washington to station an
officer in Hubbard’s Tavern to purchase meat for the
troops in the Continental Army. In addition to
agriculture, the waterfall on the Mill River powered a
grist mill and a saw mill, while the Running Gutter
Brook powered a linseed oil mill.
In the early nineteenth century broom corn became a
major cash crop and the handicraft production of corn
brooms took place in many homes. The building of the
first railroad through the town in 1846 brought in many
Irish and French Canadians, the first significant
numbers of people who were not of English ancestry. Many
of these people began their years in Hatfield working as
farm hands or making corn brooms and their descendants
eventually founded St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church.
In the second half of the nineteenth century tobacco
became the major cash crop and in the early twentieth
century onions, asparagus, and potatoes were also grown
in quantity. To meet the need for the considerable labor
these crops required, immigrants from Eastern Europe,
particularly Poles, were encouraged to settle in the
Town. Eventually the Poles founded Holy Trinity Roman
Catholic Church and Slovak families founded Holy Trinity
Lutheran Church.
The appearance of the town changed as successful
farmers and entrepreneurs built stately homes on Main
Street, small farmers and recent immigrants built more
modest houses throughout the town, fields were dotted
with the barns used to dry tobacco, several large
tobacco sorting shops were built, and a succession of
small mills were built near the waterfall. At various
times during the nineteenth and twentieth century the
falls powered a grist mill, a saw mill, a wood-working
shop, a button shop, a gun factory, a spark plug
factory, and a large machine shop. Neighborhoods of
homes and retail businesses grew up around the mills as
well as the railroad depots in West Hatfield and North
Hatfield.
Hatfield was known for more than its agriculture and
industry. In the nineteenth century the town was home of
several notable philanthropists. Oliver Smith, who had
made a fortune as an investor in agriculture and land,
endowed the Smith Agricultural and Industrial School and
the Smith Charities, both of which still play a major
role in the region. A generation later Sophia Smith
endowed both Smith Academy, which still serves as
Hatfield’s high school, and Smith College, one of the
premier women’s colleges in the United States. And Caleb
Cooley Dickinson endowed the Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
In more recent years Hatfield has retained its
relatively small size and rural appearance. Much of the
land is still dedicated to the production of corn,
potatoes, and vegetables for market. But as agriculture
has become more mechanized fewer people in town work in
the fields. Since the building of Route I-91 in the
1960s, increasing numbers of people who live in Hatfield
commute to jobs in neighboring communities. The small
factories on the Mill River are now closed, but they
have been replaced by several assembly and distribution
centers and retail businesses located close to I-91.
Although many residents now work outside the town and
have ties to other communities, there continues to be a
strong sense of identification with Hatfield which
retains its town meeting form of government and its own
independent school system. As the signs along the roads
leading into town say, Hatfield enters the new century,
proud of its past and optimistic about its future.
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