AMHERST, a town of Hampshire county, Mass., U.S.A., in the central part of the State, with a population in 193o of 5,888 (Federal census). The village of Amherst, about Loom. W. of Boston, is situated on a plateau within a rampart of hills on the east side of the Connecticut river; and is served by the Boston and Maine and the Central Vermont railways. It is a quiet, academic village, with shady streets and attractive homes.
Amherst college (q.v.) stands on a hilltop which commands a broad outlook. The Massachusetts agricultural college (incorpo rated 1863 ; opened 1867) has a campus of 70o ac. about a mile north of the village centre, and a demonstration farm of 755 ac., 6m. farther north. The enrolment in the college in 19 26-2 7 was 57o in the courses leading to the degree of bachelor of science, and 406 in the several shorter courses which are offered to meet the needs of men and women who cannot spend four years in study.
The town seems to have been settled in 1731. It was originally part of Hadley, was incorporated as a "district" in I7S9, and as a town in I 7 75. It was named after Gen. Jeffrey Amherst (1717 97). Noah Webster lived in the village (1812-2 2) while work ing on his Dictionary. Emily Dickinson (q.v.) and Helen M. Fiske (Helen Hunt Jackson, see JACKSON, HELEN MARIA) were born there.
See William Seymour Tyler, A History of Amherst College (1896), and Carpenter and Morehouse, The History of the Town of Amherst (1896).