In the early years of our country's history, those who sought a home here lived an adventurous life. We rank among the older communities of this country. Below are biographies and histories related to the early inhabitants of then Brookfield, now West Brookfield. West Brookfield is part of the original Quaboag Plantation which celebrated its 350th birthday in 2010.
The 150th Anniversary of the Civil War
The Civil War is perhaps America's greatest story; it played out on a huge stage, with great characters and themes, and multiple plot lines, it's both inspiring and absolutely heartbreaking. At least 620,000 lost their lives before the awful fratricide ended in 1865.
It was the most tragic of all wars, one between father and son, friend and friend, literally setting brother against brother. It was the Civil War whose battlefields became sacred ground not just a spot on the map, but places in the heart.
Beyond the politics, the movement of armies and the great question of slavery there remains that moment repeated thousands of times over, when battle was joined and the Civil War became nothing other than a personal matter of life or death to men in blue and gray. Check below for more Civil War biographies.
Our Remembrances
Emerson H. Bullard - This letter from the Civil War was written on November 29, 1861 from Poolesville, Maryland.
Lucy Stone - Lucy Stone was born in a farmhouse on Coy Hill Road, West Brookfield, on the 13th of August 1818. She grew up at a time when women were without most legal rights.
Jedediah Foster - The old Jedediah Foster house was built in Brookfield, now West Brookfield, when Worcester was a hamlet. The ‘Foster House’, in its day one of the most famous in the State and was built in 1729, by General Joseph Dwight who had a notable military and civil record.
Biographies:
- William L. Adams Civil War soldier
- Emerson H. Bullard Civil War soldier
- Daniel H. Chamberlain Former Statesman & Governor of South Carolina
- Jedediah Foster Our most famous statesman
- Philip Goss Early settler
- Alanson Hamilton G A R
- The Haymakers Killed by the Indians
- Josiah Henshaw Minuteman
- Stephen Jennings Early settler
- Diederik Leertouwer
- Albert W. Livermore Civil War soldier
- Joseph Marks
- Charles Merriam
- Augustus N. Potter Civil War soldier
- William Prichard & Prichard's Hill An Original Planter
- Edward U. Prouty Civil War soldier
- Lucy Stone Women's rights
- William E. Vanever Civil War soldier
- Justus C. Wellington Civil War soldier
- Edwin Wilbur Civil War soldier
- The first Planters of Quaboag and the Indians of King Philip's War
Copyright © 2001 West Brookfield
Historical Commission
Last modified:
09/23/2011