Bernardston, Massachusetts: Falls Fight Township

In the seventeen thirties, the Massachusetts Bay General Court granted a tract of land, just north of Greenfield, to the officers and soldiers who had fought in the Battle of Turner's Falls in sixteen seventy-six, or to their descendants. The grant was called Falls Fight Township, honoring the engagement that had helped turn the tide of King Philip's War. For decades the land sat mostly unsettled, a memory of war rather than a living community.

In seventeen sixty-two, settlers incorporated the town and renamed it Bernardston, in honor of Sir Francis Bernard, the royal governor of Massachusetts under King George the Third. Governor Bernard was no beloved figure, his heavy-handed policies later fueled colonial resentment, but the name stuck. The town grew into a quiet farming community in Franklin County, its Revolutionary-era roots visible today in the historic district and the long family lines that trace back to those Falls Fight veterans.