Ware Massachusetts Pre-1930

Profile manager: Naomi Warren [send private message]

The goal of this project is to create profiles for early Ware MA settlers and their descendants from approximately 1717 when the town was settled to about 1930 when the town gained land due to the creation of a water reservoir that involved the disincorporation, and flooding, of four nearby towns.

I live in the current incarnation of this town and I think it has an interesting history, and I thought it deserved its own page. The current incarnation of this town is really not a good representative of what it was when it was up and coming, and the strength of its people up to about the mid 1930s.

Right now this project just has one member, me. I am Naomi Warren.

Here are some of the tasks that I think need to be done. I'll be working on them, and could use your help.

• I'll be working on adding the early history of Ware to the best of my abilities, at least key points and timeframes (will note if I'm seeking further sources), using the resources available to me.

• I'll be working on the earlier people profiles based on the available books and documents I can find. I have some ancestors that lived in this town during this time, I'll be filling them in as well.

• Do you have ancestors that lived in this place during the specified period of time? Add them, and feel free to add any stories or pictures you might have that have been passed down! Lets create some biographies that are both educational and fun to read.

Will you join me? Please post a comment here on this page, in G2G using the project tag, or send me a private message. Thanks!

Biography

(on points "*" at the end indicates where I'd like to seek further sources)

• Settlers came in 1729. *

• Ware River Precinct came into existence in 1742.

• Before 1742 "Ware was part of a section of Hampshire County generally known as the Elbow Tract, or The Elbows." (called so because of the "bends made by the Quabog, and the Ware or Nenameseck rivers which unite to form the Chicopee (river)". 1731 is the earliest date in which the use of the name "The Elbows" was used to refer to the area, it can be found in a petition to the General Court.

• The tract of land called The Elbows sat between Hadley and Brookfield.

• Before becoming Ware River Precinct, and having an official name, Ware was said to have been called New Marlborough (1729), Kingstown (1733), Kingsfield (1933), Kingston (1741-42), separately some were calling it (or certain areas of it) Muddy Brook (1739 and 1741).

Sources

• History of Ware, Massachusetts, by Arthur Chase, University Press, 1911. https://books.google.com/books?id=Qby4E1Bllr4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false