Southwick is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,835 at the 2000 census.

History

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Southwick was originally inhabited by either the Matitacooke, Mayawaug and/or Woronoake tribes of Native Americans.

In the mid 1600s, Pioneering English explorers moving up the Connecticut River Valley, seeking fertile farmlands and game, discovered the area and settled Southwick. It became a farming community, defined as the Southern (South-) village (-wick) part the town of Westfield, Massachusetts. Early on, it was nicknamed "Poverty Plains" and its first residential home was built on College Highway (US Rts. 10 and 202) about a quarter mile North of the current Town Center.

In colonial times, church attendance was mandatory. The 800 Christian residents of Southwick in the 1760-70s were required to travel to Westfield to congregate. Only by establishing their own church society could they establish their own parish, as they desired. On November 7th, 1770, Southwick was incorporated as a separate district of Westfield. The boundried area of Southwick became somewhat smaller in 1770. The southernmost portion of Southwick joined Suffield, Connecticut as the result of a simultaneous secession of citizens in that part of the village.

Ultimately, Southwick became a fully independent town in 1775. The town remained divided until 1793, when Massachusetts claimed the area (known as the "jog"). A border dispute continued until 1804, when the current boundary was established through a compromise between the two states. As a result of this border resolution, Southwick is the southernmost town in western Massachusetts.

In the early 1800s, the Farmington Canal and Hampshire and Hampden Canal was built to link Yale/New Haven Connecticut to Northampton Massachusetts, through Southwick. Irish immigrants came to the area to labor on this project. Developers spoke of Southwick's potential, calling it the Port of the World'.' Farmers conflicted with the prospect that the canal would drain the Lakes. It was reported that citizens would kick in the banks to damage the canal. Traces of the canal can still be found in the Great Brook and Congamond Lakes area. Due to winter freezings, summer drought and wildlife impact (beaver dams ...etc.), the canal was phased out in favor of the railroad.

Completed in the late 1840s, the New York/New Haven Railroad (New Haven/Northampton) was built alongside the canal (more or less) as a revolutionary mode for travel to and through Southwick. With the railroad came the ice industry and the tourist resorts around the Congamond Lakes, (which were named 'Wenekeiamaug' by the previously existing Indian tribe). Several ornate hotels and dance halls were built as well as a small amusement park. During the Industrial era, summer vacationers and daytrippers would escape the hot and dirty cities connected by the Northeast Railroad Corridor from New York City, Albany, Boston, Worcester, Hartford and especially Springfield. There was a special stop near the Lakes where visitors would disembark to swim and/or pile into canopied pleasure boats.

During the 1st and 2nd World Wars, trains loaded with soldiers would also pass through town. It...