Dressage Or Hunter Prospect.

The Mahican Native American nation, an Algonquian people, inhabited Pittsfield and the surrounding area until the early 1700s, when the population was greatly reduced by war and disease, many migrated westward or lived quietly on the fringes of society. In 1738, a wealthy Bostonian named Col. Jacob Wendell bought 24,000 acres (97 km 2) of lands known originally as Pontoosuck, a Mohican word meaning "a field or haven for winter deer", as a speculative investment. He planned to subdivide and resell to others who would settle there. He formed a partnership with Philip Livingston, a wealthy kinsman from Albany, New York, and Col.