Facsimile web page
 A Look Back into Ashfield's Past
http://www.co.franklin.ma.us/ashfield.htm
http://www.javanet.com/~peterw/homepage.htm
http://www.state.ma.us/dhcd/iprofile/013.HTM
 

From the town's Franklin County website comes this fascinating glimpse into Ashfield's past:

 
"More than 20 years before its incorporation on June 21, 1765, this hilly area known as Hunttown - named for a man who probably never saw the place. Captain Ephraim Hunt of Weymouth, like many others, was a company commander during King William's War and he was paid for his services by a grant of land. His heirs, some 46 years after the war, offered five pounds each to the first 10 settlers who would build a house and cultivate six acres.
 
"Richard Ellis, a native of Dublin, Ireland, became the first settler, coming from Easton with his wife. Cutting trees himself, he built the first house about 1741 in the northeastern part of Ashfield. Soon after, his sister and her husband, Thomas Phillips, joined them, building a log house about a half-mile north. Then came Chileab Smith of South Hadley.
 
"Other settlers came from time to time, several from southern Connecticut. By 1754, up to 15 families and 100 people were Ashfield residents.
 
"It is not certain why the town is named Ashfield. One theory is that the town had many ash trees. Another is that Gov. Francis Bernard, for whom Bernardston is named, had a friend in Ashfield, England, Lord Thurslow. Gov. Bernard named 28 towns during his tenure, a period when Massachusetts had only 39 incorporated communities.
 
"A thriving peppermint and essence business started by Samuel Ranney and
marketed by Joseph and Jasper Bemet created a population boom during the
early 1800's but it subsided when the business moved to New York. Agricultural endeavors such as dairy farms, saw-mills, apple orchards and maple sugar houses have long been staples of the economy. Ashfield Lake has been a popular recreational attraction for more that 100 years.
 
"Cecil B. DeMille, the famous movie director, was born in Ashfield in 1881. Alvan Clark, called the world's most famous telescope maker, was born in the Chapel Falls section of the town in 1804."
 
Ashfield's attractions for the visitor: Ours is a beautiful little town - with its white, colonial houses, towering trees, old graveyards, white, clapboarded churches with tall steeples soaring into the sky and neighborly people. You might say that it looks like a Norman Rockwell painting! Ashfield has always attracted visitors and summer residents, and has many beautiful and fascinating attractions, including the following (also borrowed from the town's website):
 
"The Daughters of the American Revolution State Forest, a 1,000-acre forest
located in Ashfield and Goshen. Entrance off Cape Street in Ashfield about one mile from the Route 112 and Spruce Corner intersection. This includes upper Highland Lake, a picnic area, a camping area, a swimming area, bath houses,
a boat ramp, fishing, hunting, nature study, hiking, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling.
 
"Chapel Brook Reservation, which may be reached by going through the D.A.R. State Forest to Ludwig Road. Stunning grayish-white cliffs can be seen from
this route. This Trustees for Reservations property features cool, tranquil pools that fall in a series of steps called Chapel Falls, plus an 80-foot rock cliff called Chapel Ledges which is a favorite of rock climbers. There is a raven's nest near
the overhanging rock called the roof. Hikers can reach the top of the ledges by using a foot trail. The view from the top includes surrounding hills and the fire tower in the D.A.R. forest.
 
"Ashfield Lake, in the center of town, has been a popular place for swimming, boating, and fishing for more than 100 years. Ashfield House offers snack food
and the rental of rowboats on the lake.
 
"Ashfield Fall Festival, is held annually Columbus Day weekend in the center of town. It is a celebration of country life, offering art shows, a craft fair,demonstrations, food, games and entertainment. Call 413-628-4067 for further information.
 
"Edge Hill Golf Course, is a new nine-hole golf course on Barnes Road, just off Baptist Corner Road. Call 413-625-6018 for futher information."
..........................

AND ... from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development website (Seal and narrative supplied by community):

ashseal.gif
Narrative:
 
"Ashfield is a 40 square mile town in the Berkshire foothills in the southwestern corner of Franklin County. The town was originally named Huntstown in 1736 as a land grant plantation, but was incorporated under its present name in 1765 under the auspices of Lord Thurlow of Ashfield, England.
 
"From about 1812 to 1830, Ashfield was a center of the peppermint industry and by 1825 several hundred acres of peppermint were under cultivation, yielding up to forty pounds of oil per acre at a value of nearly $8 per pound. Other small industries during the 19th century included pottery making (an exhibit of which is at the Smithsonian Institute), production of wooden medical splints, a creamery and several sawmills, gristmills, woodworking mills, tanneries and maple sugaring. Of these, only maple sugaring continued to flourish and Ashfield has become well known for its maple products.

"For decades, Ashfield was a quiet farming community with dozens of dairy and apple farms dotting the hillsides and lowlands. In the past 40 years, however, several farms have disappeared and the open fields and pastures have returned to wooded areas. It is only in the last 20 years that more people have been moving to Ashfield than leaving it. Lured by the cool breezes and the scenic vistas, people from all walks of life have moved from the cities. These bankers, attorneys, artisans, craftspeople, writers, artists, tradesmen, technicians and others have turned Ashfield into a cultural center.

 
"Through all the years, the common theme has been that 'small is better' and
that Ashfield's role in the world is to be a haven from the world."

BUT ... unresolved problems have been accumulating, and we are currently working hard to discover the best ways of resolving them:

Time has increasingly begun to catch up with our little town, which is undergoing a growing sense of conflict-engendering concern over how to cope with the increasing number of challenges it faces. For hundreds of years, the lack of a town sewage disposal system seemed the norm for townspeople, but the volume of wastewater had begun creating a steadily increasing level of pollution of South Brook, where many family wastewater ended up. Sanderson Academy had became both too outmoded and too small to meet the needs of Ashfield's children. The nearby town of Plainfield was having similar problems. What was to be done about these problems?

Franklin County, where Ashfield is located, is also the poorest county in Massachusetts. It is often hard for people to make a living here, hard for small businesses to support themselves. Sometimes the elderly, many of whom live outside the limits of the village itself on worn-out farms, are left alone, lonely and very poor. If it were not for the neighborliness of nearby families and friends, their plight would be serious indeed. As it is, life has always been hard for many farming families in this region.

The hilly character, geographical elevation and short growing season of this charming hill town make it economically difficult if not impossible for many of the small truck, subsistence or dairy farms that used to support so many families to compete with Connecticut Valley and other agricultural acreages. Employment is hard to find within the village, and many if not most families are forced to commute to neighboring cities for work.

The townspeople of Ashfield began realizing that they were going to have to roll up their sleeves and tackle a growing number of possible opportunities disguised as problems too large to ignore! It has been far from easy, working out solutions to these problems, and the boon of grant aids from the state and the Federal government often involves an unwanted tradeoff in the form of the loss of local autonomy. Click below to go back to the Ashfield page and learn more about the programs and activities which have been designed to meet the town's new challenges - and about Ashfield's time-honored institutions: its public library, its schools, its churches and its businesses.