Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1S86. 197
Our bounds, with Simsburv (now East Gr:inl)y and Granby), settled in 1713, and
perambulated in 1734, were reestablished in 1883. That part of Westfield pro-
jectino; into Connecticut between the top of the mountain and the ponds was an-
nexed to Suffield and Connecticut in 1803. The remainder (now Southwick),
containing the ponds, is in Massachusetts, causing the curious notch in the
boundary Inie between the two States.
Brimfield was settled mainly by Spvinglield people. Colonel Pyn-
chon headed a provisional committee appointed by the General Court
in 1701 to lay out the town of Brimfield, and this committee, accom-
panied by a party of twenty Springfield men, soon after visited the
place for the purpose of settling upon a house plot ; but nothing defi-
nite was decided upon. After Pynchon's death liis son John took his
place upon the provisional committee. The town was not incorpo-
rated until 1731.
"We have spoken of the part taken by Springfield in the organiza-
tion of a town at Brookfield. The Indian wars broke up the settle-
ment for a time. In 1686 we find John Pyuchon once more at the
head of a provisional committee to manage the town affairs at Brook-
field, and they apportioned land the following spring.
West Springfield had in 1695 thirty-five families, numbering two
hundred and ten souls. •
The
first petition from the west side for a
minister was signed by John Dumbleton, John Barber, and Josiah
Marshfield ; but nothing came of it. Upon the renewal of the peti-
tion in 1696 a distinct disavowal of a determination to become a sep-
arate town was made. It was signed l)y John Barber, Benjamin
Leonard, Joseph Leonard, Jonathan Ball, Joseph Bedortha, Nathaniel
Dumbleton, Ebenezer Jones, Josiah Marshfield, Isaac Frost, and
Thomas Cooper. The latter, a large tax-payer, left Springfield that
year, and this was urged as a reason, among others, why a minister
should be settled, as it promised to break up the west side settlement.
The answer of the Centre was that the pine plain to the north was
" mean land," that while the house-lots were on the east side, the
rich lands were on the west side. To the argument that crossing the