Editing Erving, Massachusetts (section)

==History==
[[Image:General View of Erving, MA.jpg|thumb|left|General view in 1908]]
Erving is located along the [[Mohawk Trail]].  The area was part of the [[Pocomtuc]] Indian Nation, whose villages included Squawkeag in what is now [[Northfield, Massachusetts|Northfield]], and Peskeompscut in what is now [[Turners Falls, Massachusetts|Turners Falls]]. Eventually, most of the native population was displaced and/or sold into [[slavery]] as a result of [[King Philip's War]] and a series of massacres of local Indian villages.<ref>{{cite book
  | title = Peske-ompsk-ut
  | publisher = Printed at the "Reporter" job office
  | year = 1875
  | location = Turners Falls, Mass.
  | pages = 21
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yzUuAAAAYAAJ&q=Peske-ompsk-ut
  }}</ref>

Subsequently, Erving was first settled by white settlers in 1801 and officially incorporated—it being nearly the last unincorporated land in Massachusetts—in 1838. What is now Erving was once the farm of John Erving, the first colonial in the area. Noted in the 19th century for [[timber]] and [[grazing]], the town had seven [[sawmill]]s, two [[chair]] factories, one [[Bucket|pail]] factory, one children's [[carriage]] factory, and one bit-brace factory. Large numbers of [[railroad tie]]s and [[telegraph pole]]s were cut in the abundant forests here, as many as 1,495,000 in one year.<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mafrankl/zerv.html Genealogy in Franklin County, Massachusetts -- Town of Erving]</ref>
Today, Erving has a school, a police and fire department, public library, several small stores and restaurants. The biggest employer in town is Erving Industries, a paper mill with history to [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]] - 'Paper City era'.