EASTHAMPTON  , a township of

Hampshire county, Mass., U.S.A., in the Connecticut Valley . Pop . (1900) 5603, of whom 1731 were foreign-born; (1905) 68o8; (1910) 8524 . It is served by the Boston & Maine, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways, and by interurban electric railways . The township is generally level, and is surrounded by high hills . In Easthampton are a free public library and Williston Seminary; the latter, one of the oldest and largest preparatory schools in New England, was founded in 1841 by the gifts' of Samuel Williston (1795—1874) and Emily Graves Williston (1797—1885) . Mr and Mrs Williston built up the industry of covering buttons with cloth, at first doing the work by hand, then (1827) experimenting with machinery, and in 1848 building a factory for making and covering buttons . As the soil was fertile and well watered, the township had been agricultural up to this time . It is now chiefly devoted to manufacturing . Among its products are cotton goods, especially mercerised goods, for the manufacture of which it has one of the largest plants in the country; rubber, thread, elastic fabrics, suspenders and buttons . Parts of Northampton and Southampton were incorporated as the " district " of Easthampton in 1785; it became a township in 1809, and in 1841 and 185o annexed parts of Southampton .