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Almandine :: Locality: Russell Garnet mine, Russell, Hampden County, Massachusetts, USA (Locality at mindat.org) :: Size: 4.4 x 4.0 x 4.0 cm. :: A very sharp, well-developed crystal of classic Russell garnet. It displays very nicely, and is complete all around except the bottom. Ex. Russell Jones collection. In the late 1800s, Daniel Clark and F.S. Johnson collected these from a local pegmatite. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]The following is a post from a friend and fellow member of the Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society:
New Book on Early History of Russell, Massachusetts
Russell, Massachusetts – Establishment of a New England town and early historical notes. By Ralph E. Cortis and Bruce W. Cortis
The book is now available to those local to Westfield/Russell directly from the authors at "Living Our Past", or via ‘Off the Common’ books, Amherst, Ma.
Also, two Book Signings and Presentations as noted below:
This new title is a compilation of research which Ralph E. Cortis has been doing over the last 25+ years on the town of Russell, Massachusetts. This book focuses on the information he has researched and gathered from a wide variety of local and regional resources over that time.
The book begins with the establishment of Russell in 1792, continuing to the early 1900’s. Areas of focus include how the town was established from a section of land originally granted to Westfield in 1737, town boundaries and topology, early roads and turnpikes, early industry and later the paper mills which were so important to Russell’s growth.
The text also has sections on town history relating to early schools, churches, railroads, bridges, cemeteries and early military service.
This is the first known publication to draw together this information in a single document.
Ralph E. Cortis was born in 1928 on Route 23 in the Woronoco part of Russell. He is a descendant of Isaac Palmer, one of the original settlers of Woronoco. In addition to the many generations of the Palmer and Cortis families, he has multiple other branches who resided in Russell over the last 200+ years. In conjunction with his research on Russell families and early town history, he previously completed a compilation of Russell’s Civil War veterans in 2007 (included in this book).
Bruce W. Cortis joined his father in 2008 with researching Russell’s history and supplemented his father’s efforts with additional on-line research, compilation of the information and composition of this book.
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Town Offices, Russell Massachusetts, September 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]
Who was Russell named after? Was it settled by a Russell?
ReplyDeleteHi Shelley! Nice to "meet" you. I've contacted the author of the book to check the blog post and give you a better answer than I could! I should get a notice when he replies. His name is Bruce Cortis. He and his father authored the book.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly Russell was named after a Mr. Benjamin Russell who was a native of Boston, but the background on it is a little hazy. This was reported by Richard Garvey, a long time Editor of the Springfield Newspapers in a small magazine published in Huntington, Mass known as Stonewalls. Benjamin Russell was a federalist and later a Newspaper publisher in Worcester, also a high ranking member of the Masons, So, if in fact, it’s named after him it was probably due to political and other connections. That’s the only known explanation for the naming of the town but it’s far from completely verified. There were a couple Russell families very early but the town isn’t named after them.
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