Westhampton, Massachusetts
A Short History of Westhampton
From a 1762 hill settlement the neighbors called Long Division, to a church rebuilt on the common, to a 2026 vote that doubled the town’s protected forest, Westhampton has decided almost everything the same way: in a room where any registered voter can stand up and be counted.
Set Off from Northampton
Westhampton was first settled in 1762 as the western end of Northampton, where it was known as Long Division. Thirty-seven inhabitants petitioned the Northampton Town Meeting to set off four miles of the west end into a town of their own, and Northampton granted it. The act of incorporation passed on September 29, 1778, creating the Town of Westhampton, and that date is on the town seal. The first town meeting was held on November 19, 1778, at the dwelling of Nathan Clark, to choose town officers and to decide whether to keep the Reverend preaching in town. That minister, the Reverend Enoch Hale, brother of the Revolutionary figure Nathan Hale, accepted the call and served Westhampton for nearly fifty years, preparing local young men for college; one of them, Justin Edwards, finished Williams College in three years at the top of the class of 1810.
Sheep, Mills, and a Church on the Common
Sheep and wool were the town’s early economy. In 1837 Westhampton counted 2,518 sheep, and the wool alone was valued at $3,205. Down in Loudville, the village that straddles the Westhampton, Northampton, and Easthampton lines, mills lined the Manhan River from 1815 to 1915, four of them paper mills. The Westhampton Church now standing on the common was built and dedicated on December 3, 1829, after the earlier meetinghouse burned, and its spire was added to the square in 1860.
From Eight Schoolhouses to One
Westhampton once had at least eight one-room schoolhouses scattered across the town. In 1931 they were closed and every child was brought to a single Center School. In 1989 Town Meeting turned down a new kindergarten through grade 6 elementary school, then approved a scaled-down version, and the school that Westhampton children attend today opened in November 1990. Each of those turns was a Town Meeting decision, which is to say a decision the voters made themselves.
Still a Town Meeting Town
Since 1909 Westhampton has kept a Boston Post Cane for its oldest resident, awarded by the Selectboard; the current ebony and gold replacement dates from 1978 and was presented to Jessie Krug at the Westhampton Public Library on January 10, 2026. Route 66 remains the only state highway through town, running nine miles east to Northampton and west to Knightville in Huntington. In 2028 Westhampton turns 250, and Town Meeting was asked in June 2026 to fund the celebration. That same spring the voters closed a state-funded deal that more than doubled the town’s protected Community Forest to about 425 acres, proof that the room where this town started still runs it.
Sources: Town of Westhampton (westhamptonma.gov, Welcome to Westhampton and town news posts); Wikipedia, Westhampton, Massachusetts; U.S. Census Bureau.