Towns Along The Yellowstone Trail Highway

By Richard Etchells

This book takes the reader on a road trip along the Yellowstone Trail Highway From Plymouth, Massachusetts through Wisconsin. Each town is describes as to its history, background and naming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Etchells
• Release date: Dec 22, 2020

Book preview

 2___________pastedGraphic.png

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Plymouth played a very important role in American colonial history. It was the final landing site of the first voyage of the Mayflower and the location of the original settlement of Plymouth Colony . Plymouth was established in December 1620 by English separatist Puritans who had broken away from the Church of England , believing that the Church had not completed the work of the Protestant Reformation . Today, these settlers are much better known as the Pilgrims , a term coined by William Bradford . Plymouth is a twin city with Plymouth in Devon, United Kingdom.

 3___________pastedGraphic.png

Boston, Massachusetts

Many of the crucial events of the American Revolution occurred in or near Boston. Boston's penchant for mob action along with the colonists' growing lack of faith in either Britain or its Parliament fostered a revolutionary spirit in the city. When the British parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, a Boston mob ravaged the homes of Andrew Oliver , the official tasked with enforcing the Act, and Thomas Hutchinson , then the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. The British sent two regiments to Boston in 1768 in an attempt to quell the angry colonists. This did not sit well with the colonists. The colonists compelled the British to withdraw their troops. The event was widely publicized and fueled a revolutionary movement in America. Boston has a total of eleven sister cities.  In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act . Many of the colonists saw the act as an attempt to force them to accept the taxes established by the Townshend Acts . The act prompted the Boston Tea Party .

 4___________pastedGraphic.png

Worcester, Massachusetts

In the 1770s, Worcester became a center of American revolutionary activity. British General Thomas Gage was given information of patriot ammunition stockpiled in Worcester in 1775. Also in 1775, Massachusetts Spy publisher Isaiah Thomas moved his radical newspaper out of British occupied Boston to Worcester. Thomas would continuously publish his paper throughout the American Revolutionary War . On July 14, 1776, Thomas performed the first public reading in Massachusetts of the Declaration of Independence from the porch of the Old South Church, where the 19th century Worcester City Hall stands today. He would later go on to form the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester in 1812. Worcester has four sister cities.



5___________pastedGraphic.png

Springfield, Massachusetts

Springfield was founded in 1636 by English Puritan William Pynchon as Agawam Plantation under the administration of the Connecticut Colony . In 1641 it was renamed after Pynchon's hometown of Springfield, Essex , England, following incidents, including trade disputes as well as Captain John Mason's hostilities toward native tribes, which precipitated the settlement's joining the Massachusetts Bay Colony . During its early existence, Springfield flourished both as an agricultural settlement and as a trading post, although its prosperity waned dramatically during (and after) King Philip's War in 1675, when natives laid siege to it and burned it to the ground as part of the ongoing campaign. Springfield has three sister cities.

 6___________pastedGraphic.png

Pittsfield, Massachusetts

In 1738, a wealthy Bostonian named Col. Jacob Wendell bought 24,000 acres (97 km ² ) of lands known originally as Pontoosuck , a Mohican word meaning a field or haven for winter deer, as a speculative investment. He planned to subdivide and resell to others who would settle there. He formed a partnership with Philip Livingston , a wealthy kinsman from Albany, New York , and Col. John Stoddard of Northampton , who had claim to 1,000 acres (4.0 km ² ) here. Soon, many others arrived from Westfield, Massachusetts , and a village began to grow, which was incorporated as Pontoosuck Plantation in 1753 by Solomon Deming, Simeon Crofoot, Stephen Crofoot, Charles Goodrich, Jacob Ensign, Samuel Taylor, and Elias Woodward. Pittsfield was incorporated in 1761. Pittsfield is the geographic and commercial hub of the Berkshires —a historic area that includes Tanglewood , the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra , and author Edith Wharton 's estate The Mount. Many buildings in Pittsfield are listed on the National Register of Historic Places .

 7___________pastedGraphic.png

Albany, New York

Albany is one of the oldest surviving European settlements from the original thirteen colonies and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States. The Hudson River area was originally inhabited by Algonquian -speaking Mohican (Mahican), who called it Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw , meaning the fireplace of the Mohican nation. Based to the west along the Mohawk River , the Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk referred to it as Sche-negh-ta-da , or through the pine woods, referring to the path they took there. The Mohawk were