West Springfield's northernmost parish (alternately called Third Parish, North Parish, or Ireland Parish) became Holyoke, named after earlier Springfield settler William Pynchon's son-in-law, Elizur Holyoke, who had first explored the area in the 1650s.
The mountain was named after Elizur Holyoke, an early resident of Springfield, Massachusetts who first explored the mountainous region that came to bear his name.
He led the 1635 settlement of Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, which was named after his home village, now a suburb of Chelmsford in Essex, England; and Captain Elizur Holyoke, the namesake of the mountain, Mount Holyoke, and (indirectly), of the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Chapin, Pynchon's son John and another Pynchon son-in-law, Elizur Holyoke, were appointed town Commissioners (essentially a board of magistrates).
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