Dwight Stuart Bridgman was born and raised in the Israel Bridgman homestead on North Road in Westhampton, Massachusetts. He attended the one-room schoolhouse on Chesterfield Road and Williston Academy in Easthampton. While a student at Williston, he boarded during the week with a Mrs. Matthews, with whose daughter he soon fell in love. They were married in 1883 and settled on the Bridgman family farm on North Road. Dwight assumed control of the farm when his ailing father retired to Florence, Mass. Thus it was that Dwight raised his family in the home of his ancestors.
Dwight was a farmer and lumberman and he made the chief business of his life the management and extension of the family homestead. In connection with his lumber business, he bought up many acres of land and cleared them off to sell the lumber. He loved being out in the woods of Westhampton and was happiest when with a team of horses getting a load of lumber. As soon as his eldest son Heugh was old enough, Dwight turned the dairy part of the farm over to him, so that he himself could spend more time lumbering.
Dwight was very active in town affairs, serving as selectman from 1904 to 1922 and overseer of the poor, assessor, and town auditor for many years. He and his wife were very active in the Congregational Church and seldom missed church services or Sunday School. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1933.
Mrs. Bridgman died in 1936. In the fall of 1943, Dwight moved from the family homestead to the house at 833 Westhampton Road in Northampton, where he lived the remainder of his life with his son and daughter, Henry and Rachel Bridgman.
In his later years Dwight was much interested in his ancestry and in local history, and he wrote several reminiscences which were printed in the Gazette. When he was 96 years old, his insurance company "retired" his ordinary life insurance policy and presented him with a check for $1,028 because he had outlived what the company considered the "average" life of a man.
Dwight died at the age of 97 years, being the oldest man in Northampton at the time of his death.
© 2013 James E. Bridgman
Dwight was a farmer and lumberman and he made the chief business of his life the management and extension of the family homestead. In connection with his lumber business, he bought up many acres of land and cleared them off to sell the lumber. He loved being out in the woods of Westhampton and was happiest when with a team of horses getting a load of lumber. As soon as his eldest son Heugh was old enough, Dwight turned the dairy part of the farm over to him, so that he himself could spend more time lumbering.
Dwight was very active in town affairs, serving as selectman from 1904 to 1922 and overseer of the poor, assessor, and town auditor for many years. He and his wife were very active in the Congregational Church and seldom missed church services or Sunday School. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1933.
Mrs. Bridgman died in 1936. In the fall of 1943, Dwight moved from the family homestead to the house at 833 Westhampton Road in Northampton, where he lived the remainder of his life with his son and daughter, Henry and Rachel Bridgman.
In his later years Dwight was much interested in his ancestry and in local history, and he wrote several reminiscences which were printed in the Gazette. When he was 96 years old, his insurance company "retired" his ordinary life insurance policy and presented him with a check for $1,028 because he had outlived what the company considered the "average" life of a man.
Dwight died at the age of 97 years, being the oldest man in Northampton at the time of his death.
© 2013 James E. Bridgman
Dwight Stuart Bridgman was born and raised in the Israel Bridgman homestead on North Road in Westhampton, Massachusetts. He attended the one-room schoolhouse on Chesterfield Road and Williston Academy in Easthampton. While a student at Williston, he boarded during the week with a Mrs. Matthews, with whose daughter he soon fell in love. They were married in 1883 and settled on the Bridgman family farm on North Road. Dwight assumed control of the farm when his ailing father retired to Florence, Mass. Thus it was that Dwight raised his family in the home of his ancestors.
Dwight was a farmer and lumberman and he made the chief business of his life the management and extension of the family homestead. In connection with his lumber business, he bought up many acres of land and cleared them off to sell the lumber. He loved being out in the woods of Westhampton and was happiest when with a team of horses getting a load of lumber. As soon as his eldest son Heugh was old enough, Dwight turned the dairy part of the farm over to him, so that he himself could spend more time lumbering.
Dwight was very active in town affairs, serving as selectman from 1904 to 1922 and overseer of the poor, assessor, and town auditor for many years. He and his wife were very active in the Congregational Church and seldom missed church services or Sunday School. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1933.
Mrs. Bridgman died in 1936. In the fall of 1943, Dwight moved from the family homestead to the house at 833 Westhampton Road in Northampton, where he lived the remainder of his life with his son and daughter, Henry and Rachel Bridgman.
In his later years Dwight was much interested in his ancestry and in local history, and he wrote several reminiscences which were printed in the Gazette. When he was 96 years old, his insurance company "retired" his ordinary life insurance policy and presented him with a check for $1,028 because he had outlived what the company considered the "average" life of a man.
Dwight died at the age of 97 years, being the oldest man in Northampton at the time of his death.
© 2013 James E. Bridgman
Dwight was a farmer and lumberman and he made the chief business of his life the management and extension of the family homestead. In connection with his lumber business, he bought up many acres of land and cleared them off to sell the lumber. He loved being out in the woods of Westhampton and was happiest when with a team of horses getting a load of lumber. As soon as his eldest son Heugh was old enough, Dwight turned the dairy part of the farm over to him, so that he himself could spend more time lumbering.
Dwight was very active in town affairs, serving as selectman from 1904 to 1922 and overseer of the poor, assessor, and town auditor for many years. He and his wife were very active in the Congregational Church and seldom missed church services or Sunday School. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1933.
Mrs. Bridgman died in 1936. In the fall of 1943, Dwight moved from the family homestead to the house at 833 Westhampton Road in Northampton, where he lived the remainder of his life with his son and daughter, Henry and Rachel Bridgman.
In his later years Dwight was much interested in his ancestry and in local history, and he wrote several reminiscences which were printed in the Gazette. When he was 96 years old, his insurance company "retired" his ordinary life insurance policy and presented him with a check for $1,028 because he had outlived what the company considered the "average" life of a man.
Dwight died at the age of 97 years, being the oldest man in Northampton at the time of his death.
© 2013 James E. Bridgman
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