Pelham
Pelham has a very interesting history; well most of it is anyways. In 1786, Pelham had less than 1,000 people. They also had about 120 houses, ninety-eight barns, and two mills. Only a few families lived by what then would be called middle class. Before this, many of the first settlers helped build the meeting house for the town. The date was 1743. It was a church during Shays' Rebellion. The town hall is the oldest continuously used one in the country. Pelham had difficulty growing produce because the soil they had was lacking things it needed. Generation after generation providing land for each son was getting more difficult. Soon they could only give land to one son. Other people who wanted their own farms had to migrate to Berkshire County, New York State, or Vermont. The scarcity of land was a problem. A long number of young men without land, one-third of voting males in Pelham, contributed to the population.
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