“It is a wonder that Norwood was every allowed to venture so near to the low grounds of the Connecticut {River}; for it was early settled, not far from thirty years after the Pilgrims’ landing. How the temptation to build upon the top of the hill was resisted, we know not.’’

— Henry Ward Beecher on Northampton {“Norwood”), Mass., in Norwood; Or, Village Life in New England, 1868