, built about 1740. Postcard . Stockbridge was settled by British missionaries in 1734, who established it as a
praying town for the
Stockbridge Indians, an
indigenous Mohican tribe. The township was set aside for the tribe by Massachusetts colonists as a reward for their assistance against the
French in the
French and Indian Wars. The Rev.
John Sergeant, from
Newark, New Jersey, was their first
missionary. Sergeant was succeeded in this post by
Jonathan Edwards, a Christian theologian associated with the
First Great Awakening. First chartered as Indian Town in 1737, the village was incorporated on June 22, 1739, as Stockbridge. The missionaries named it after
Stockbridge in
Hampshire, England. Although the
Massachusetts General Court had assured the Stockbridge Indians that their land would never be sold, the agreement was rescinded. Despite the aid by the Tribe to the
American Patriots during the
Revolutionary War, their lands in Stockbridge were stolen by white townspeople. The Tribe was forced to relocate west, first to
New York and then to
Wisconsin. The village was taken over by
European American settlers. With the arrival of the
railroad in 1850, Stockbridge developed as a summer resort for the wealthy of Boston and other major cities. Many large houses, called
Berkshire Cottages, were built in the area before
World War I and the advent of the
income tax. Stockbridge was home to several cottages, including
Naumkeag. Since 1853, Stockbridge has benefited from the presence of the
Laurel Hill Association, a village beautification society. The Stockbridge Bowl Association maintains and preserves the natural beauty of Stockbridge Bowl and the surrounding Bullard Woods. Stockbridge was the home of
Elizabeth Freeman, a freed slave, late in her life. The former slave engaged the attorney
Theodore Sedgwick to file a
freedom suit on her behalf, based on the statements in the new state constitution in 1780. In the case with a slave named Brom, the county court ruled that they were both free under the constitution. Their case served as precedent to a later case before the State Supreme Court, effectively ending slavery in Massachusetts. Freeman transferred as a free woman to work in the household of Sedgwick, who became a state judge. Also working in the household was
Agrippa Hull, a free black veteran of the war, who became the largest black landowner in Stockbridge. Freeman was buried in the Sedgwick family plot at the Stockbridge Cemetery.
Catharine Maria Sedgwick, a daughter of Theodore and his wife, became a renowned 19th-century literary figure. She was born in Stockbridge in 1789. She is the author of six novels, including her most famous,
Hope Leslie (1827). In the
Curtisville area, now known as the Interlaken part of Stockbridge,
Albrecht Pagenstecher, an immigrant from
Saxony, established the
first wood-based newsprint paper mill in the United States, in March 1867. Pagenstecher later went on to found "numerous pulp and paper mills throughout the Northeast and Canada" and serve on the board of directors of the
International Paper Company. The town has a tradition as an
art colony. The sculptor
Daniel Chester French lived and worked at his home and studio called
Chesterwood.
Norman Rockwell painted many of his works in Stockbridge, which is now home to the
Norman Rockwell Museum. ==Geography and climate==