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Westhampton Historical Society - Sampler Exhibit at the Blacksmith Shop Museum

Virginia Shafer, of Michigan, will soon be publishing her extensive research into the Pittsinger family.  A copy of her original research article is available at the Westhampton Library.  Virginia attended our 225^th celebration, and feels very connected to our town.  She has traced Johannes Petzinger from his birth in Germany in 1751 to his death in Westhampton in 1823.  Having been drafted into the Hessen Artillery Company at the age of 25 and swearing a second allegiance to King George III, Johannes fought in the American Revolution – on the side of the British.  He was transported to Canada, a journey of nearly four months, where he joined other British and German troops fighting the Americans in campaigns on Lake Champlain and in the upper Hudson River Valley of New York.  Johannes was captured with many other Hessian soldiers in 1877 at the Battle of Bennington and was marched back to Hampshire County as a prisoner.  When the war was over, Johannes settled in the town of Chesterfield, where he had been held.  In 1783, he married a Westhampton girl named Rhoda French, and purchased land in town from her father, a resident since 1770.   

John and Rhoda had twenty-eight grandchildren, among them, Rosena Pittsinger.  She was seven years old when Johannes died.  In 1827, at the age of eleven, she created a beautifully stitched sampler.  That recovered Pittsinger sampler, discovered last year in a Vermont antiques store, will visit Westhampton this summer.  Barbara Kelly, great-great-great-granddaughter of the sampler’s creator, Rosena Pittsinger, will display it at the Blacksmith Shop Museum on Sunday, June 15^th from 1-3 p.m.  The Historical Society invites others to bring their samplers, old or new, to display, as well.  If you don’t know what a sampler is, or to see one online, go to:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-stitch

For more information about the June 15^th display, contact Barbara Pelissier at 527-3209. 

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Town Hall Information
1 South Rd
Westhampton, MA 01027
Ph: 413-527-0463
Fax: 413-527-8655
Hours:
Monday -  7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.- By appointment

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