The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Deerfield

DEERFIELD, Mass., town of Franklin County, on the Connecticut River and the Boston and Maine and the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads, 33 miles north of Springfield. It is an agricultural region, and its industries are chiefly related to agricultural products. It has also manufactures of pocket books and art novelties. It has a high school, Deerfield Academy and a public library. The town contains the village of South Deerfield, and in colonial times was the scene of several contests with the Indians. Among them were the “Bloody Brook Massacre” (1675) and the burning of the village by the French and Indians under De Rouville (1703). Old Deerfield has a beautiful soldiers' monument, and there is at South Deerfield a marble monument commemorative of the Bloody Brook disaster. Eliza Allen Starr, author and art teacher, was born in Deerfield. The waterworks are owned by the municipality. The government is administered by annual town meetings. Pop. 2,209. Consult Sheldon, ‘A History of Deerfield, Mass.’ (Deerfield 1895-96), and Powell, ‘Historic Towns of New England’ (New York 1898).