Miles Morgan statue, Springfield, Mass.

Miles Morgan, who braved the western Massachusetts wilderness in the 1630s, is not bothered by a little bit of snow on his rakish cocked hat.

Sculpted by Jonathan Scott Hartley, the statue stands in Springfield’s Court Square, with the Campanile piercing the big blue sky in the background on this clear, cold day.

Morgan was born in Bristol, England in 1616, and traveled as an adventurer to Boston in 1636. He married a girl named Prudence who was a fellow passenger on his ship. Settling in the new plantation of Springfield on the Connecticut River, Miles Morgan built himself a fortified blockhouse, which became the fledging community’s fortress of safety when the settlement was burned during King Phillip’s War.

Eventually, young Springfield’s young hero went back to the mother country, where he died in Wales in 1699. But here in Springfield his image stands, forever ready for action, his musket on his shoulder, fearing nothing.