The first effort of which we can learn in behalf of the schools of this locality was made in 1722. The people here then petitioned the town of Pomfret to which they then belonged that they might be exempt from taxes for building a school house in the center of that town, and also that they might have part of the money that was appropriated from the treasury of the colony to help them to keep a free school in their section. The request was granted by the town, and a school was then established here. For many years after … Read more

Lorin S. Atwood, born in Mansfield July 23d, 1812, is one of twelve children of Elisha and Anna (Hartshorn) Atwood. From about 1850 to 1860 he was engaged in the hotel business in Hampton. He then removed to Brooklyn and was a merchant there till his death in 1888. He married, first, a Miss Cooley, by whom he had three children: Juliette, Arvila and Herman. His second wife was Margaret Bradbent, who had one son- Oscar F. John M. Baker, son of Almon and Hannah (Tucker) Baker and grandson of John Baker, was born in Brooklyn in 1814, and has … Read more

The township of Brooklyn received a charter from the assembly in May, 1786, to organize as a town. The first town meeting was held in its much esteemed meeting house, June 26th, 1786. Colonel Israel Putnam was called to the chair. Seth Paine was chosen town clerk, treasurer and first selectman; Andrew Murdock, Asa Pike, Daniel Tyler, Jr., and Joseph Scarborough, selectmen; Peter Pike, constable; Ebenezer Scarborough, Abner Adams, Joshua Miles, Jedidiah Ashcraft, Jr., Salter Searls, Nathan Witter, Joseph Davison, Samuel Williams, Stephen Frost. James Dorrance, Elisha Brown, Reuben Harris, surveyors; John Jefferds, Ebenezer Gilbert, fence viewers; Abijah Goodell, Isaac … Read more

The township of Brooklyn, the shiretown of Windham county, is centrally located, with Pomfret on the north, Killingly and Plainfield on the east, Canterbury on the south, and Hampton on the west. The area of the town is about thirty square miles, its width from north to south being about five miles and its length from east to west about six miles. It has one central village, which contains the county buildings, churches, stores and shops, and is very handsomely shaded and ornamented. The northern part of the town is hilly, while the southern part is marshy and rolling. The … Read more

John Baker came from Dudley, Mass., to Ashford about 18.25. He bad four children, one of whom, Enoch, married Mary Webster, and had seven children, six of whom are now living. Davis A., the second son, born in Ashford in 1835, was educated at the schools of his native town and the state Normal school. He taught school in early life, but for the last ten years has been engaged in mercantile business. He represented Ashford in the legislature in 1867, 1877, and 1887, has been town clerk and judge of probate several years. He married Eliza Walbridge, and has … Read more

In the early period of settlement the territory of Ashford, which originally included also the present town of Eastford, was a part of the Wabbaquasset country which was conveyed to Major Fitch by Owaneco in 1684. It was a wild forest region, remote from civilization, but known and traversed from the early settlement of New England, lying directly in the route from Boston to Connecticut. The first company of Connecticut colonists encamped, it is said, on the bill north of the present. village of Ashford, and the old Connecticut Path crossed what is now Ashford Common. Thus the land here … Read more

The Society of Abington, comprising the western part of Pomfret, was chartered and described by the assembly May 2d, 1749, the act, in part being as follows: ” Resolved by the Assembly that an ecclesiastical society be, and is hereby, erected in the west part of said township, and that the bounds thereof be as follows: Bounded north on Woodstock, westerly on the line dividing between said town of Pomfret and Windham, so far south as to the parish already made partly out of said Pomfret, and partly out of Canterbury and partly out of Mortlake; thence by said parish … Read more