Nancy Pigman at 93

by Stephanie Skinner

March 2025

There are people in Otis who can trace their family connection back generations. One of them is Nancy Pigman, who at 93 is a regular feature at the farmer’s market and around town, titanic if not by size, but by wit. She’s been coming to her family’s house on the lake, Sweatland Cottage, for her whole life. “Actually, you could say I came here even before I was born,” she says holding her hand out to reflect that her mother was pregnant with her when SHE vacationed here.

Sweatland Cottage on the Reservoir was built by her grandfather in 1903 after he had camped on the property for years. He hired a builder to construct it, but he was out of the country when the house was finished. When he saw his home by the water for the first time, “Family lore says he was horrified. It was supposed to be a light green but it was forest green inside,” says Nancy with a smile and twinkle. It is still a modest home, with few changes that alter the original structure.

Nancy’s grandfather, Louis Robert Sweatland, and his father, Nancy’s great-grandfather, were in the carriage whip industry in Westfield, part of the industry that gave the town its moniker of “Whip City.” The company, L. R. Sweatland & Co., was best known for their English Hollys, but also Knotted Oak, Linen and Gut Covered Whips, Crops, Jockeys and Riding Whips.

In those days, many Westfield families came to Otis to vacation. “That’s only 20 miles away, but that’s far enough when you’re coming ‘up the mountain’ on horseback or in a horse-drawn carriage.” In the early years of Henry Ford rolling the Model-T off the assembly line, whip makers L.R. Sweatland & Co. did well enough with the wealthy equestrian set in Lenox. (Fun fact, the first American gasoline-powered car was built by Frank and Charles Duryea of our very own Springfield, Massachusetts. AND they had researched internal combustion engines at the Springfield Library.) But the era of the car had come, and while L.R. Sweatland & Co. hung on for a while, the writing was on the wall.

Meanwhile, Nancy’s dad, Louis Richard Sweatland, pulled up stakes from Westfield and moved his family to Pittsfield, where he established an oil heating business. In the years during WWII, her dad was in charge of oil for Berkshire County, while her mom worked for the Red Cross. Nancy’s memories of that time include black-out curtains, rationing, having the phones taken out of the house to be used in the war effort and Victory Gardens. She attended public school in Pittsfield and then Miss Hall’s, where the headmistress told her in no uncertain terms that she would go to Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA.

Graduating Mt. Holyoke with an AB in Political Science, and encouraged by powerhouse professor Victoria Schuck (who went on to become president of Mt. Holyoke), Nancy took an internship with then Rep. Jacob Javits (R-NY), and eventually went to work for Sen. Leverett Saltonstall (R-MA). While still interning for Javits, Nancy was sent to monitor the McCarthy hearings and had a front-row seat to his antics and those of his lawyer, Roy Cohn, and his consultant David Schine. Nancy met her husband then, Wendell Holmes Pigman, a former Marine who served in the Korean War, who was a city guy from DC getting his master's at the time.

Wendell went on to work for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (Sr.) (D-NY), including during the time when he was assassinated. “We were a divided family!” she says with a smile, noting that they never actually fought about anything important.

Nancy counts her time as ‘Salts’ staff person as some of her most rewarding years, working on the first Civil Rights Act of 1964-'65, the Voting Rights Act, penning an in-depth paper about nuclear power legislation, and reviewing legislative suggestions.

When asked what it felt like to live such a momentous life in such a pivotal time, she looked surprised and said, “Well, I don’t think it was that momentous.” These memories are just as important as those of her father driving her around Pittsfield to look at the all ‘big houses,’ her husband passing away so terribly young and leaving a 12-year-old son Geoff, or her grandmother making and serving the Sunday roast.