Stories Carved in Stone: Holyoke, Massachusetts

The story of Holyoke, the industrial marvel of the mid-nineteenth century, begins in the small church-centered farming community at the turn of the 18th century. It wasn?t until the mid-1840s, about the time the Connecticut River Railroad was built through Ireland Parish, that the little village on the rapids began to attract the attention of outsiders. In 1848, Holyoke, with its proposed configuration of dams, canals, and mills, became the first planned industrial city in the United States. Laborers, earning eighty-five cents a day, built three dams across the rapids and excavated nearly five miles of canals. Though intended as a textile city, by 1890 there were twenty-six paper mills. As the mills proliferated, a steady source of labor was needed, and immigration began in earnest.Holyoke, Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone, takes you into Holyoke's graveyards for a look at more than two hundred and fifty years of history, and the people who lived it.This third book in the Stories Carved in Stone series completes the three-part overview of early West Springfield, Massachusetts, before Agawam and Holyoke became towns. Together they present a full picture of the gravestone carvers, the mourning practices, and the families who lived and died here. Gravestone fans and genealogists alike will find much to explore in these old cemeteries.