Community
Profile
West
Brookfield
Incorporated.............................1848
Population...............................3,804
Change from 990..................+7.7%
School district ....Quaboag Regional
Area......................... 20.48 sq. miles
Miles of roads..........................50.25
History
The area that is now the center of West Brookfield was inhabited by the
Quaboag tribe of the Algonquins until 1660 when the General Court granted
the land to four men from Ipswich. They secured a deed from the Quaboag
tribe and, by 1665, had established an isolated settlement called Quaboag
Plantation.
By 1673, the settlement had grown to about 20 families, large enough to
be designated as a town, which was named Brookfield. Two years later,
it was attached by Indians and most of its buildings were destroyed during
a three-day siege. King Philip's War. Nearly 100 residents survived by
taking refuge in the tavern, where they held the Indians at bay until
soldiers arrived from Marlboro. It was several years before the town was
settled again.
Other towns that were carved, in whole or in part, out of the original
Quaboag Plantation are North Brookfield, East Brookfield, Brookfield,
New Braintree and Warren.
Interesting facts
1. The first draft of the Massachusetts Constitution was written by Judge
Jedediah Foster atop Foster Hill in West Brookfield in 1779. Judge Foster
served as a representative to the state Legislature from 1761 to 1779.
Earlier he had been a colonel in the Continental Army during the Revolution
and a member of the Continental Congress.
Much of the wording and content of the Massachusetts Constitution was
used in writing the Constitution of the United States in 1787.
2. Among West Brookfield's most famous natives were Lucy Stone, a leader
of the American suffrage movement, who began advocating for the right
of women to vote at the age of 12, and Daniel Henry Chamberlain, an abolitionist
who served as governor of South Carolina.
Published: Worcester
Telegram and Gazette - November 2, 2003
Sources: Town of West Brookfield, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, U.S.
Census Bureau.