Editing Springfield, Massachusetts (section)

=== Colonial period ===
[[File:View of Springfield, Massachusetts on the Connecticut River by Thomas Chambers.JPG|thumb|left|''View of Springfield, Massachusetts, on the Connecticut River'' {{circa|1840–1845}}, by [[Thomas Chambers (painter)|Thomas Chambers]]]]

Springfield was founded in 1636 by English Puritan [[William Pynchon]] as "Agawam Plantation" under the administration of the [[Connecticut Colony]]. In 1641 it was renamed after Pynchon's hometown of [[Springfield, Essex]], England, following incidents, including trade disputes as well as [[John Mason (c. 1600–1672)|Captain John Mason's]] hostilities toward native tribes, which precipitated the settlement's joining the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]].<ref>Barrows, Charles Henry (1911). ''The History of Springfield in Massachusetts for the Young: Being also in some part the history of other towns and cities in the county of Hampden''. Connecticut Valley Historical Society. pp. 46–48</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Springfield, 1636–1886: History of Town and City|last=Green|first=Mason Arnold|chapter=Chapter II. 1638–1639|publisher=C. A. Nichols & Co.|year=1888|page=20|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vMLAcJjc4p8C&pg=PA20|access-date=February 15, 2019|archive-date=February 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230215200249/https://books.google.com/books?id=vMLAcJjc4p8C&pg=PA20|url-status=live}}</ref> During its early existence, Springfield flourished both as an agricultural settlement and as a trading post, although its prosperity waned dramatically during (and after) [[King Philip's War]] in 1675, when natives [[Attack on Springfield|laid siege to it and burned it to the ground]]. During that attack, three-quarters of the original settlement was burned to the ground, with many of Springfield's residents survived by taking refuge in John Pynchon's brick house, the "Old Fort", the first such house to be built in the Connecticut River Valley. Out of the siege, [[Miles Morgan]] and his sons were lauded as heroes; as one of the few homesteads to survive the attack, alerting troops in Hadley, as well as Toto, often referred to as the "Windsor Indian" who, running 20 miles from [[Windsor, Connecticut]], to the settlement, was able to give advance warning of the attack.<ref name=King9>{{cite book | last = King | first = Moses | author-link = Moses King | title = King's Handbook of Springfield, Massachusetts | publisher = Franklin Press | year = 1885 | page = 9 | isbn = 9781152362826}}</ref>

The original settlement—today's downtown Springfield—was located atop bluffs at the confluence of four rivers, at the nexus of trade routes to [[Boston]], [[Albany, New York|Albany]], [[New York City]], and [[Montreal]], and with some of the northeastern United States' most fertile soil.<ref name="worldcat">{{cite web |url=http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/org.oclc.lac.ui.DialABookServlet?oclcnum=61302153 |title=Find in a Library: The Encyclopedia of New England |publisher=worldcat.org |access-date=October 16, 2014 |archive-date=October 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017173537/http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/org.oclc.lac.ui.DialABookServlet?oclcnum=61302153 |url-status=live }}</ref>