The town of Wethersfield, CT

Wethersfield was settled in 1634 by families who voluntarily left the Massachusetts Bay Colony both for land and to have the freedom to practice their own religious beliefs. They were led by John Oldham, and spent the winter of 1634-35 in Wethersfield awaiting permission from the Massachusetts court to settle along the Connecticut River .

Wethersfield is known as Connecticut’s “most auncient town”, a title long disputed by the town of Windsor, CT. The reason for this dispute is that a trading post was established in Windsor prior to Wethersfield’s settlement by the Plymouth Colony, but that venture proved unsuccessful.

Our town sent many soldiers to battle in the American Revolution, the War for Independence. Here, on Main Street, George Washington visited, prayed and planned with the Compte de Rochambeau the military campaign that ultimately led to the battle of Yorktown, the battle that ended the Revolutionary War. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries Wethersfield, a river port, was the center of commerce for the entire Connecticut valley. 

In 1649 what is said to be the first ship built in Connecticut, The Tryall, was constructed at Thomas Deming’s shipyard. Between 1661 and 1699 six or seven warehouses for the West Indies trade were built in this area. One of these still stands. Until after the Revolution, Wethersfield’s prosperity was due in large part to shipbuilding. Trade with the West Indies began as early as 1648 and grew steadily. The cash crop became the Red Wethersfield Onion, widely known and traded. By the middle of the eighteenth century trade had brought considerable wealth to the town, and luxuries of considerable sophistication, fine fabrics, ceramics, glass, cutlery and books were imported and sold in Wethersfield.

The 1764 meetinghouse, which still stands today, was the center of community life. The brick construction of that meetinghouse was a symbol of the wealth of the community at the time. Many of the eighteenth and nineteenth century homes of the farmers, merchants and sea captains still stand today, in our quiet and beautiful historic district, the largest in the state of Connecticut. Our town has more homes built before 1850 than any other town in the state. Several are open to the public.

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