East Longmeadow was first known as the east village of Longmeadow, which was established in 1644. The name was derived from the great meadows along the Connecticut River that lie on the western edge of town. Scrub pine and sandy fields a few miles to the east separated East Village from the rest of town. The area's first settlers lived along the river, but the spring floods drove them to higher ground. Both East Village and Longmeadow were mostly agricultural areas. By the 1860s, East Village residents started to farm the land in their own town, and in 1894, East Longmeadow became a town of...