HILLTOWNHISTORY “The origin of the community at Middlefield Station was due entirely to the construction of the Western Railroad along the West Branch of the Westfield River. By the late thirties the valley took on new life when swarms of workers came to camp in temporary shacks while they constructed the track along the right of way once occupied by the Pontoosuc Turnpike. When the road began operations in 1841, there was no station at Middlefield, but only a turn-out which allowed trains to pass each other. The switch for the turnout was tended by Daniel Fowler, who lived nearby and from this railroad device the community which gradually grew in this locality received its local name, ‘The Switch’. About 1843 John Mann built a sawmill and opened a store where a post office called Bancroft was opened in 1846. Mann started a paper mill which later was owned by William West who built the brick mill which was operated through most of its existence by Bulkley, Dunton & Co., of New York.” Middlefield History, Sternagle.

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