Follow
Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Official Website
Springfield is the county seat of Hampden County. The first Springfield in the New World, during the American Revolution, George Washington designated it as the site of the Springfield Armory for its central location, subsequently the site of Shays' Rebellion. The city would also play a pivotal role in the Civil War, as a major stop on the Underground Railroad and home of John Brown, best known for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and for the Armory's manufacture of the famed "Springfield rifles" used ubiquitously by Union troops. Closing during the Johnson administration, today the national park historic site features the largest collection of historic American firearms in the world. Today the city is the largest in western New England, and the urban, economic, and media capital of Massachusetts' section of the Connecticut River Valley, colloquially known as the Pioneer Valley. Springfield has several nicknames – "The City of Firsts", due to the many innovations developed there, such as the first American dictionary, the first American gas-powered automobile, and the first machining lathe for interchangeable parts; "The City of Homes", due to its Victorian residential architecture; and "Hoop City", as basketball – one of the world's most popular sports – was invented in Springfield in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, Springfielders produced many innovations, including the first American-English dictionary (1805, George and Charles Merriam-Noah Webster, Jr., lexicographer); the first use of interchangeable parts and the assembly line in manufacturing (1819, Thomas Blanchard); the first American horseless car (1825, Thomas Blanchard); the mass production of vulcanized rubber (1844, Charles Nelson Goodyear ); the first American gasoline-powered car (1893, Duryea Brothers); the first successful motorcycle company (1901, "Indian"); and one of America's first commercial radio stations (1921, WBZ, broadcast from the Hotel Kimball). Springfield would play major roles in machine production, initially driven by the arms industry of the Armory, as well as from private companies such as Smith & Wesson, established by Horace Smith and Daniel Baird Wesson . Similarly, the industrial economy led Thomas and Charles Wason to establish the Wason Manufacturing Company, which produced the first manufactured sleeping car. The largest railcar works in New England, Wason produced 100 cars a day at its peak; the company was eventually was purchased by Brill in 1907 and closed during the Depression in 1937.