Pontoosuck

Pontoosuck was the Mahican name for the country around the upper Housatonic, later the site of the town of Pittsfield. It has been interpreted as a field or refuge for deer in winter. Streams descending from the surrounding wooded hills fed the Housatonic River, and the valley supported farms and mills as colonial settlement grew.

In 1738 Jacob Wendell bought a large tract at Pontoosuck for speculation. Settlers began clearing land in 1743, but fear of Indigenous resistance during King George's War interrupted their efforts. The community was organised as Pontoosuck Plantation in 1753 and incorporated as Pittsfield in 1761, taking its new name from the British politician William Pitt. By the end of the American Revolution, its population had grown to nearly two thousand.