Shutesbury Timeline

20 million yrs ago.. 20,000yrs ago..5.000yrs ago..1761, 1811, 1861, 1911, 1961, 2011,

Big bang etc…

Native people

1735 Settlers from the East scarfing up land/building the road from Boston to the Connecticut River

1761Shutesbury Incorporated named after the Governor’s wife’s uncle. She donated a bible (is in the town vault).

1776 American revolution/Rev Abraham Hill thrown in the town pound and pelted with herring. First minister, a Tory, married the first couple in Shutes Silent Wilde and Euniece Strong. Silent was a Selectman and an express rider bringing news of the Revolution from Boston to Sunderland.

1811 Social Library established in Shutesbury. 40 proprietors each gave $1. One woman on the list but crossed out.

1861 Industrial Revolution Shutesbury pieceworkers made hats and shoes and golden pens, there were 5(?) schools and many bars and churches. (school committee annual reports-interesting!)

1905 Herman Dihlmann, born in Tuttlingen, Germany emigrated to the US to find opportunity, leaving his wife Anna and son Fred behind in Norway. After they moved to Shutesbury, Anna died after becoming ill following a fall while roping a steer. Fannia and Hermann Dihlman are the parents of Herman Jr, Gustave, Emil, Karl, Rudolph and Pauline. (Bob Dihlman's grandparents)

1846-1911 William Hemenway (great-grandson of Lurana Cady*, whose grandfather Samuel Henry built Fiona Rogers house) “was deeply interested in the work of the library, and contributed freely and generously to its support. The modern bookshelves that adorn the library were a gift from him and he was also contemplating more extensive work in the near future.”

‘William Hemenway’, said his old friend and neighbor Newton D. Crossman ‘was one of the finest men that ever lived. He would do everything that was in his power for everybody, and charge little or nothing for his services.’”

1913 Aidan’s great grandparents John and Katherine Plaza took a team of horses, and a stage coach to their new homestead in Shutesbury,

1930 Electricity comes to Shutesbury. (Mary Dihlman recounts Karl's story of the people on the common waiting for hours for the lights to go on.)

1945 WWII ends. Shutesbury has the highest number of recruits for any town this size in US. Sophia Plaza etc..

1961 Shutesbury’s 200^th Anniversary, Nathan Hunting retires after being Town Clerk since William Hemenway’s untimely death in 1911. A long time Chair of the Board of Trustees of the MN Spear Memorial Library. He valued education, honesty and quiet diplomacy.

One cold night, he returned from Pelham to Shutesbury to return a pen he had accidently taken.

Inspired and helped Henry Dihlman pursue higher education and graduate from UMASS in 1937.

2011 ??

* Of interest is the fact that Lurana Cady was the daughter, sister, wife(both husbands), daughter-in-law and mother of a man named Samuel. There is a family crypt in her honor in our Cemetary.