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Since before there was a town called Huntington, the meeting of the waters of the various branches of the Westfield River has shaped our town. Even in pre-colonial days, the site was likely a summer hunting camp for the Woronoake Indians that traveled between the valleys of the Connecticut and the Housatonic Rivers. We know that there was considerable Native American activity along the Westfield, although most of the established year-round Indian villages were in the wide fertile plains along the Connecticut.
In the waning days of the eighteenth century, as the United States was being born, when western Massachusetts was still a wild frontier, a village of settlers sprung up at the junction of the West Branch and the main stem of the Westfield. The village was called Falley's X Roads, named after the owner of the tavern at the center of it, in about the same location as the current Park Cafe. It developed on a parcel which had been sold by order of the General Court (the Colonial legislature) in 1762, to William Williams, as "Plantation No. 9". On October 31, 1765, a town was incorporated on this plantation, which was named Murrayfield. The town of Murrayfield included current-day Chester, as well as a large portion of what is now Huntington.
On June 29, 1773, the township was divided, by act of the General Court, with the eastern portion being incorporated as the district of Norwich. As a district, Norwich had all the authority of a town, except the right to direct representation in the General Court. The residents of Norwich were allowed to join with the renamed town of Murrayfield, now Chester, for representation. Given the political climate of the time, only three years prior to the Declaration of Independence, this infringement on direct representation seems to have been directed at squelching the power of the colonists in favor of the Colonial Government as directed by King George III.
Falley's X Roads sat in the very southeast corner of the town of Chester, a stone's throw from both the Blandford (Glasgow) and the Norwich town lines. The rear of the current Evangelical Church sits approximately on the former Blandford town line, while the site of John's Barber Shop was in Norwich. Just to the east lay Montgomery and Russell. The location of Falley's X Roads was not decided for political reasons- in fact its location created many political problems. It developed where it did because the river meeting made it a natural location for such a village.
The river and its branches made possible early industry in many forms. Among the early industrial pursuits were Mixer's grist mill, Hannum's axe factory, several carding and other textile shops, numerous woodworking shops of various descriptions, a whetstone producer, a joiner's tool shop, tinsmith shop, and a basket shop, as well as sawmills, blacksmith shops, tailors, dressmakers and shoemakers. Most of these were answering local needs. It wasn't until the railroad came that manufacturing for a regional or national market began.