Town History

Tyringham was formally incorporated in 1762 and Governor Bernard chose the name to honor a wealthy cousin, Jane Tyringham, who had just left him an estate. It is the only town in Massachusetts named for a woman, and there is no other place in the United States called Tyringham.
 
In its early years the town's economy was based on farming and small industries - cider mills, rope factories and paper mills. Tyringham had the first foundiner paper machine, said to make the best paper in the country. Tyringham was a very busy little mill town until the 1840s when the railroad came to Lee and the businesses went there also.
 
Around 1780 the Shakers moved to Tyringham and settled on Jerusalem Road. The Community closed in 1874, but many of their buildings survived and today are privately owned homes. 
 
In the 20th century, industry gradually departed. One of the last was the M.W. Stedman Rake Shop on Main Road, which proudly presented a rake every year to the President of the United States.
 
Over the years this beautiful valley has been a retreat for prominent writers, musicians, artists and public figures - including Mark Twain, sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson, and most recently Governor Michael Dukakis. Grover Cleveland loved to fish in Hop Brook and Goose Pond. He was fined $2.00 for catching too many fish.
 
In 1877 some 100 schoolchildren attended the town's five rural schoolhouses. One hundred years later there were only five children attending the sole surviving schoolhouse in the center of the village. In 1977 the school closed, and now the old schoolhouse serves the town as additional office space. The schoolchildren in Tyringham are tuitioned into the Lee Public Schools. The towns of Tyringham and Lee have a Superintendency Union.