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

SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
work of exploring the Counecticut valley. When Oldham's estate
was settled it was fouud that he owed Mr. Pyuchon £22 19s. 9fZ.
It has been usually taken for granted that William Pynchou pros-
pected in this valley in KJoo. It must have been a hasty trip, how-
ever, as he was at Boston in March, April, May, -June, July, August,
and November of that year. He did not attend the September
conit, however. The first house on the banks of the Agawam river,
which empties into the Connecticut just below Springfield, was built
in 1635, the workmen arriving in time for the spring planting. If
Mr. Pynchon himself went thus early he anticipated the action of the
General Court, which did not pass the vote authorizing the forming
of a new plantation until May.
The route taken by the early prospectors and settlers of Spring-
field rests under quite as deep a cloud of doubt as the dates them-
selves. There is an old romance, written by a native of Springfield,
entitled " Letoula ; or, a legend of Springfield; founded on Fact."
It contains the following passage :
—
At the close of a summer evening in 1635, as the sun was sinking in the far
west and casting its last l)rilliant beams through a hedge of willows which
bordered the sparkling waters of the lovely Coimecticut, a birch canoe, shooting
by an opening in the willows, approached the shore. A small party of Englishmen
disembarked, and, accompanied by a guide, ascended the hill. Tliey were
met at the summit by a sachem, wlu) conducted them inside the palisadoes. The
next morning a council was held, and the strangers made known the object of
their visit, wliich was to purchase land for a settlement.
There is probalily as much truth in this avowed work of fiction as
in some of the professedly historical accounts. A house was already I
up, and crops growing, in the summer of 1(535, and the parley with |
the Indians had, of course, taken place before that. The story that |
the Roxbury party, led by William Pynchou, approached the Connect-
icut valley substantially over the Boston & Albany Railroad route,
may safely be set down as a piece of visioniug. A speaker in an
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