Conway, Massachusetts
A Short History of Conway
A Franklin County hilltown carved out of Deerfield, home to one of only three original nineteenth-century covered bridges in Massachusetts, and to a domed library that Marshall Field gave in memory of his parents.
Carved Out of Deerfield
The land that became Conway was part of Deerfield, added to it by a grant from the General Court in 1712. In 1762, after the close of the French and Indian Wars, the area was surveyed and divided into 141 lots averaging 150 acres, and the lots were sold and settled rapidly. Five years later, in 1767, the land was separated from Deerfield and incorporated as the Town of Conway.
The Man Who Gave the Library
In 1901 Marshall Field gave Conway a library in memory of his parents, John and Fidelia Nash Field, and the building he paid for is not a plain brick box. The Field Memorial Library has a domed rotunda, Italian marble, and original woodwork, an architect’s building in a town of about eighteen hundred people, and it is still the town’s library today.
The Covered Bridge
The Burkeville Covered Bridge is one of only three original nineteenth-century covered bridges in Massachusetts, and the town publishes the story of how it was built on its own website.
Rivers, Weather, and a Town That Endures
Conway grew up around water. Its first mills were the gristmills and sawmills the settlers built along the streams, and by the mid-1800s most of its factories stood along the South River, the main source of waterpower in town. In 2017 a tornado cut a path through Conway, and the town cleaned up and carried on, as hilltowns do.
The Festival of the Hills
Since 1962 Conway has welcomed visitors each fall to the Festival of the Hills, which exists only through volunteer support. Since 2000 it has raised more than $155,000 in scholarship aid for more than 200 Conway high school seniors, and its Sunday program includes a 10 kilometer road race through the town’s hills. A town that governs itself in one room every June also throws itself a party every fall, and both are run by the people who show up.
Sources: Town of Conway (conwayma.gov); Field Memorial Library (fieldmemoriallibrary.org); Festival of the Hills (festivalofthehills.com).
MassCivics last checked this page on October 14, 2026.
Sources
- Town records: Town of Conway, Conway’s Burkeville Covered Bridge, as of October 13, 2026.
- Community organizations: Conway Festival of the Hills, Conway Festival of the Hills, as of October 13, 2026.
- Community organizations: Field Memorial Library, About, as of October 2026.