Hampden, Massachusetts

Hampden is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,139 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The namesake of Hampden is John Hampden, an English patriot.OverviewHampden has 2 communities, the center, or the "village", where the town hall, fire dept., police dept., Country Auto, Grog Shoppe, Casa Bella, and other businesses are located, and the "west side", where the Village Mart, Monson Savings Bank, La Cucina Restaurant, Hampden Nurseries, Bilton's Farm Market, Mountain View Restaurant, Shell gas station and other businesses are located.HistoryThe Hampden-Wilbraham region was once known as Minnechaug to the Nipmuc Indians. They sold it to William Pynchon of Springfield in 1674, and the area then became known as Springfield Mountain, but it was not settled until about 1741. The first European settlers were the Stebbins and Hitchcock families. The first sawmill was erected on the Scantic in the vicinity of the V.F.W. building.The "Rattlesnake Incident of 1761" is thought to have occurred on farmland in what is now Hampden on August 7 of that year, when 22-year-old Timothy Merrick was killed by a snakebite while mowing his father's field — an event immortalized by "On Springfield Mountain", among the earliest ballads ever written in North America, and the basis for the modern folk song "Rattlesnake Mountain".