Pittsfield, MA news and local guide

Colonists from Westfield later arrived, and in 1753 the village was incorporated as Pontoosuck Plantation by Solomon Deming, Simeon and Stephen Crofoot, Charles Goodrich, Jacob Ensign, Samuel Taylor and Elias Woodward. Mrs. Deming, the first of the original colonists to arrive, was also the last survivor, dying in 1818 at 92. In 1761, with about 200 residents, it was incorporated as the township of Pittsfield, named by Royal Governor Sir Francis Bernard for the British statesman William Pitt. By the end of the Revolution Pittsfield had nearly 2,000 residents, among them Colonel John Brown, who accused Benedict Arnold of treachery in 1776, years before Arnold went over to the British, writing that "money is this man's God." The many brooks flowing into the Housatonic River powered mills producing lumber, flour, paper and textiles. Sources Wikipedia: Pittsfield, Massachusetts