Pioneer Valley Reader




Mount Holyoke Science Women




South Hadley

Page 2


In 1837, there were two woolen mills, 3 sets of machinery; 60,000 yards of cloth were manufactured, the value of which was $45,000. There were three paper mills; stock manufactured, 1,250 tons; value of paper, $161,500; males employed, 43; females, 41; capital invested, $100,000. Two pearl button manufactories; 18,000 gross of buttons were manufactured, valued at $8,500; males employed, 13; females, 18; capital invested, $4,200. The value of leather tanned and curried was $18,400.


View from the summit of Mount Holyoke
View from the summit of Mount Holyoke.

Mount Holyoke, on the northern borders of this town, rises 830 feet above the level of the Connecticut at its base, and from its summit presents probably the richest view in America in point of cultivation and fertile beauty, and is quite a place of fashionable resort. “It is a part of a mountain ridge of greenstone, commencing with West Rock, near New Haven, and proceeding northerly, interrupted by only occasional valleys, across the whole of Connecticut, until it enters Massachusetts between West Springfield and Southwick, and proceeds along the west line of the first-named place, and along the east line of Westfield, Easthampton, and Northampton, to the banks of Connecticut. Until it reaches Easthampton its elevation is small; but there it suddenly mounts up to the height of a thousand feet, and forms Mount Tom. The ridge crosses Connecticut in a north-east direction, and curving still more to the east, passes along the dividing line of Amherst and South Hadley, until it terminates ten miles from the river in the north-west part of Belchertown. All that part of the ridge east of the river is called Holyoke; though the prospect house is erected near its southwestern extremity, opposite Northampton and near the Connecticut.”

The following view is from Mt. Holyoke, showing the appearance of the curve of the Connecticut, sometimes called the Ox-bow, which gracefully sweeps round a circuit of three miles without advancing its ocean course a hundred rods. “In the view from Holyoke we have the grand and beautiful united; the latter, however, greatly predominating.” “On the west is seen, a little elevated above the general level, the populous village of Northampton, with its elegant public and private buildings; a little more to the right the neat and substantial villages of Hadley and Hatfield; and still further east and more distant, Amherst, with its college, gymnasium and academy, on a commanding eminence, form a pleasant resting place to the eye. On the south is seen the village of South Hadley. Springfield and. other places south indistinctly visible along the banks of the Connecticut, and even the spires of the churches in Hartford may be seen in good weather, just rising above the trees. With a telescope the elevated peaks in the vicinity of New Haven may be seen. Facing the south-west, the observer has before him the ridge called Mount Tom, which rises one or two hundred feet higher than Holyoke.” In the north-west the Graylock may be seen peering above the Hoosic, and still farther north the Green mountains shoot up beyond the region of clouds. Near at hand, in the valley of the Connecticut, are seen the insulated Sugar-loaf and Toby presenting their fantastic outlines; while far in the northeast rises in insulated grandeur the cloud-capt Monadnoc.” “Probably, under favorable circumstances, not less than 30 churches, in as many towns, are visible from Holyoke. The north and south diameter of the field of vision there can scarcely be less than 150 miles.”


| Page 1 | Page 2 |




These pages are an edited and adapted version of the original
and cannot be reproduced in any format without permission
© Laurel O’Donnell, 2006, all rights reserved
This page was last updated on
28 Apr 2006