Windham County

Thus in ten years the Roxbury colony was comfortably established, but clouds were gathering. The long-continued war between France and England incited their Indian allies to shocking atrocities. New England was exposed to constant alarm and assault from the fierce Mohawks and restless Canadian Indians. An isolated, frontier town like Woodstock was especially exposed, and the insubordination of its own Indian residents added to their uneasiness. These Wabbaquassets were inimical to Massachusetts and her authority, but most fortunately at this epoch they were willing to yield allegiance to Lieutenant John Sabin, half brother of Deacon Sabin, who had established himself … Read more

Apart from this incident nothing is known of the aboriginal inhabitants of Woodstock, until the Indian converts of John Eliot found their way there. Two of these youths, trained at Natic in a school of virtue and piety, inspired by the teachings and example of the reverend apostle, sought to carry ” good tidings ” to their benighted countrymen at Wabbaquasset. They were sons of Petavit, sachem at Hamannesset (now Grafton), and are described as hopeful, pious and active young men. The younger, Sampson, “an active and ingenius person,” had been before conversion dissolute in conduct, ” lived very uncomfortably … Read more

Nothing worthy of the name of village existed in Thompson during the last century. Four or five houses and a blacksmith shop had been built upon Thompson hill, in the vicinity of the meeting house; the meeting house, as in many hill towns, building up a village instead of the village building the meeting house. But when it was found that two lines of turnpike were to intersect upon the hill, new life sprang up. The Joseph Watson house, Wickham’s store and Keith’s tavern were built before 1800, and soon after that date several houses were erected, especially upon the … Read more

In 1833 the growth of the village seemed to indicate that the condition of things might be improved by incorporation as a borough. A petition to the legislature was accordingly presented, which contained the signatures of the business men of the place. It was sent to the legislature at their session at Hartford, in May, 1833. Stephen Hosmer was one of the representatives of the town, and through his efforts, together with those of other citizens, a charter was obtained, organizing Willimantic into a borough. Mr. Hosmer was authorized to call a meeting of the legal voters residing within the … Read more

Town offices in 1861, at the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, were: Ezra C. May, clerk, registrar and treasurer; Samuel M. Fenner, Asa Goodell, Hezekiah Bishop, selectmen; George N. Lyman, S. W. Bugbee, collectors; Nathan E. Morse, constable; R. S. Mathewson, H. S. Perry, Oliver Marcy, Elias Child, 2d, Baldwin Vinton, Carlo May, grand jurors; Simon Bartholomew, George Bugbee, Albert Morse, assessors; F. W. Flynn, L. D. Underwood, C. C. Potter, board of relief: William Lester, Otis Perrin, land surveyors; George Bugbee, George A. Paine, J. W. Sessions, S. M. Fenner, Alexander Warner, M. Bradford, John White, … Read more

Perhaps the most serious inconvenience resulting from the unorganized condition of the future Thompson was inability to provide suitable roads. To make a good road in its hard and rockbound soil was a very difficult enterprise, requiring the authority of selectmen or suitable officers. Lacking such authority, the settlers simply “trod out ” their own ways from house to house, and to such points as enabled them to communicate with the outer world. For public roads there was the “old Connecticut Path,” obliquely crossing from Massachusetts line into Woodstock, below the site of the present New Boston. There was also … Read more

Revolt from Massachusetts was soon followed by a protracted ecclesiastic conflict, resulting likewise in secession and separation. Both controversies sprung from the same germ-the inherent antagonism between the two colonies. Those citizens who favored Massachusetts government and ideas adhered faithfully to the Cambridge platform and principles, upon which the first church in Woodstock was founded, while the especial friends of Mr. Stiles, advocates for the new departure, had imbibed some portion of his regard for the Saybrook platform and religious establishment of Connecticut. Mr. Stiles’ request to attend the meetings of the Windham County Association of ministers, “purely for his … Read more

At the town meeting in 1807, John McClellan, Esq., served as moderator. Jedidiah Morse still retained the position of town clerk and treasurer; selectmen, John McClellan, Captains Luther Baldwin, William May and Jedidiah Kimball, and Deacon Stephen Johnson; constables, David Frizzell, Parker Morse, Amasa Lyon; grand jurors, Henry Welles, Thomas Corbin, Captain Asa Child, Darius Barlow; listers, David Frizzell, William Lyon, Darius Barlow, Doctor Haviland Morris, Captains Carpenter Bradford, Aaron Child and Judah Lyon; pound keepers, William Flynn, Roswell Ledoyt, Chester May; tavern keepers, William Bowen, Jonathan Day, Daniel Lyon, Charles W. Noyes, Chester May, John Child, Sanford Holmes, Perley … Read more

In 1731 the new county movement carried the day, and Woodstock, with many northward towns, was incorporated into Wore tester county. This distant frontier town furnished the leading officers. Already colonel of the regiment, John Chandler, Sr., was now made judge of probate and chief justice of the court of common pleas. John Chandler, Jr., was appointed clerk of the court, and by especial request of the inhabitants removed his residence to Worcester. The first court in the new county was held in judge Chandler’s Woodstock mansion, wherein much legal and public business was transacted. A new road was now … Read more