Egremont, Massachusetts
A Short History of Egremont
From a 1722 Dutch settlement in the far southwest corner of Massachusetts, to a farming town of two villages, to a Berkshire community that wired its own rural roads for fiber and still votes its budget in a single hall.
A Town in the Corner of the State
Egremont was first settled in 1722 by Dutch families who came east from New York, and English settlers arrived a few years later. Massachusetts incorporated the town in 1761, the same era that Berkshire County itself was carved out of the old western frontier. The town may take its name from Charles Wyndham, the 2nd Earl of Egremont, who as Secretary of State for the Southern Department held responsibility for the American colonies just as the town was being chartered. Egremont has always sat in the corner where the Massachusetts hills meet the New York line, bordering Great Barrington, Sheffield, Alford, Mount Washington, and the New York towns of Copake and Hillsdale.
Two Villages and the Land Between
For most of its history Egremont has been a farming town, its life gathered in two villages, North Egremont and South Egremont, with a small milling area around the south village and lightly settled forest and open field in between. That shape still shows on the map and in the way the town governs itself: a scattered community small enough that the people who show up to Town Meeting genuinely decide the year.
The Cannons on the Knox Trail
Around New Year’s Day of 1776, General Henry Knox came through Egremont hauling cannons he had brought from Fort Ticonderoga to help lift the Siege of Boston, one of the more remarkable feats of the Revolution. The route he followed across the Berkshires is remembered today as the Knox Trail, and a historical marker stands in the village of North Egremont where the guns passed through.
A Rural Town That Wired Itself
Egremont carried its town-meeting habits into the present in a very modern way. Facing the same gap in broadband that stranded many Berkshire hill towns, Egremont became a leader among Berkshire County communities in building out town-wide fiberoptic internet, reaching homes along rural roads that the large carriers had passed over. It is the same civic move the town has always made: a shared need, a vote at Town Meeting, and a service the neighbors decided to provide for themselves.
Sources: Town of Egremont, About Us (egremont-ma.gov); Wikipedia, Egremont, Massachusetts; U.S. Census Bureau.