City of Springfield history

By 1820 the town had evolved from its agrarian beginnings into a manufacturing town, which included the U. S. Armory.

William is credited for erecting the first cabin in what would become Springfield near the 1200 block of West College Street in February 1830.

The town was incorporated in 1838.

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated (formerly G. & C. Merriam Co.), publisher of Merriam-Webster dictionaries since 1847, has its headquarters there.

In 1852, the year in which Springfield was incorporated as a city, Smith and Wesson incorporated in Springfield and has maintained its headquarters there to this day.

Stearns, Charles. “Memoir of William Pynchon”. New England Historical and Genealogical Review 13 (October, 1859) 287.

10, 1861, army units clashed near Wilson's Creek, the site of the first major battle west of the Mississippi River, involving about 5,400 Union troops and 12,000 Confederates.

Then in January 1863, Confederate forces advanced toward the town square and the Battle of Springfield began.

In July 1865, the town square was the site of the nation’s first-recorded shootout.

On April 21, 1870, the St Louis-San Francisco line rolled through Springfield, establishing a new city, North Springfield, with Commercial Street as its downtown.

Other highlights of Springfield’s history in manufacturing include the development in 1893 of the first commercially produced gasoline-powered automobile by the Duryea Brothers: Charles and Frank.

Do you believe that this Architectural structure was redesigned and rebuilt in the early 1900's because of a monkey? Apparently the little creature overturned a kerosene lamp at a City Hall fair, resulting in a fire that destroyed the building.

In 1901, the Indian Manufacturing Company was founded in Springfield and produced the first brand of motorcycle in America.

Springfield Present and Prospective, etc.. (Springfield, Mass.: Pond & Campbell Publishers, 1905). Section entitled “The Story of Springfield” by Alfred M. Copeland and Edwin Dwight.

Soldiers in King Philip’s War – Soldiers In King Philip's War From 1620-1677, by George Madison Bodge, 1906.

The Founding of New England (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1921). Regarding the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, see: Chapter 15: “The Loss of the Massachusetts Charter”; and Chapter 17: “The New Order”. See specifically pg.

To resolve the conflict, Woodruff invited Avery to meet with him and B. H. Piepmeier, State Highway Engineer of Missouri, at Woodruff’s office on April 30, 1926.

2, 1932, police raided a farm in search of outlaws Harry Young and his brother, Jennings, resulting in what would be known for decades as the worst massacre of law officers in the nation.

Following disastrous floods in 1936, a federal project involving 20 dams and reservoirs was begun.

In 1938, Route 66 became the first completely paved transcontinental highway in America stretching from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Coast.

A man, who was 14 in 1953, revealed he had released the snakes from a crate on the pet shop’s front porch because he was angry with the shop owner over fish that died the day he purchased them.