History of Amherst, Massachusetts Start Your Visit
WithHistorical Timelines General Interest Maps Amherst is
located in Hampshire County, 20 miles north of Springfield.
Amherst is adjacent to Hadley and from the time it was settled
in the 1730's to 1759, it was part of Hadley. In 1759, it was
organized as a separate district, which was incorporated as a
town in 1775. The name honors Lord Jeffrey Amherst, a hero of
the French and Indians Wars. Amherst Academy was a college
preparatory school that was founded in 1814. One of the founders
was Samuel Fowler Dickinson, whose grandaughter Emily Dickinson
attended Amherst Academy and went on to become famous as a poet.
Some of the same people who started the academy founded Amherst
College in 1821. Noah Webster was one of the founders and was
the college's president while he was writing his dictionary.
Robert Frost lived in Amherst and taught at various times at
Amherst College. The Robert Frost Library is on the college's
campus. In 1863, the state of Massachusetts