The Chicopee Historical Society will present a talk next Wednesday on Chicopee’s experience during the Revolutionary War. The soldiers from Chicopee Street, the settlement of Skipmuck (future Chicopee Falls) and the area of what is now Chicopee Center were all the northernmost part of Springfield. Several men and boys marched to Boston when news of the Battle of Lexington and Concord was brought by a post rider the next day.
Their enlistments, their battles, and their stories will be told by Society vice president Jacqueline T. Lynch.
Join us on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in the Bazan Community Room of the Chicopee Public Library, 449 Front Street, Chicopee.
This event is free and open to the public.
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Other Upcoming Programs
OCTOBER: Board member Anton Zamachaj (and former Strathmore employee) will present a lecture on papermaking and papermills in Chicopee and western Massachusetts.
NOVEMBER: Vermont author Daniel Bullen will close our 250th year with a look at Shays’ Rebellion and talk about his book, Daniel Shays’s Honorable Rebellion.
“In a meticulously researched narrative, Daniel Bullen tells the story from the people’s point of view, and finds a story of regular people who banded together and kept the peace for five months of protests, as they protected their land and liberties from the powerful financiers and speculators who were abusing their power and seeking to profit at their expense.”
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Find us at Center Fresh Chicopee, November 4
Join our docents in Market Square for self-guided tours, scavenger hunts, crafts, and info on how to learn the history of your home.
Center Fresh Farmers Market was launched in 2021. The market is open 2-6 P.M. on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, from August 19 to November 18. Come visit our table and meet our crew on Wednesday, November 4th!
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We have recently been contacted by the Wings of Freedom organization which is requesting personal stories and memories about the Berlin Air Lift, especially as it regards Chicopee’s special place in that remarkable event: Operation Little Vittles.
“In 1948 and 1949, local schoolchildren, college students, volunteers, businesses, and community members helped make the small parachutes and prepare candy that would eventually be dropped to children in Berlin.
What I would especially love to find now are people who personally participated as children or teenagers, or their sons, daughters, grandchildren, siblings, or friends who remember hearing their stories.
“I am not looking for a comprehensive history of the project at this point. I am really hoping to find the human stories: what the children remember making, where they worked, who they worked alongside, what they understood about Berlin at the time, and what the experience meant to them later in life.”
Contact Wings of Freedom here at their website: Wings of Freedom. Or share with us your memories in an email to us, or a comment on our website, or on our Facebook page, and we’ll pass your comments along.
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Please contact us if you’d like to help in the operation of the Chicopee Historical Society. Our efforts to research and preserve the history of Chicopee will require more help from the community if they are to continue.
Contact us at TheChicopeeHistoricalSociety@gmail.com, or through our Facebook page, or our website here.
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