The Press., 1906-04-18
WILMINGTON

The following is from an address
delivered at Fourth of July celebra-
tion held in the grove near the Glass
Factory school house somewhere in
the seventies, by the late Seth Eaton
of this town. Some persons are now
living who we're present on the ooca-
sion, and although the document con-
tains some errors and is sparce in
some details, as the author suggests,
we give it, for what there is in it
may prove interesting to some read
ers. The paper was offered to us
some years ago by sister n-law OF
the now deceased author, and, strange
ly enough, it came into our hands the
other day from the PARKWAY state of
Minnesota a.
For a hundred years after the land
ing of the pilgrims on Plymouth Rock
the territory which we call Wilmington
remained unoccupied. Even the wild
red man departed from it's limits and
it was one dark, desolate, tenantless
forest. Before the year 1920 the
towns of Stafford, Ashford, Mansfield
and Tolland were formed and their
settlements commenced. In Mans
field, especially, considerable progress
in settlement had been made. Thus
it happened that there was blank
space of about 25 square miles sur
rounded by those towns, the home of
no man and without a name. The
land, by virtue of King Charles the
Seconds charter of 1862, was vested
i'll the Governor and Company of His
Majesty's Colony of Connecticut. In
many parts of the colony persons
bought land of the Indians, and thus
conflicting claims arose between the
grantees of the Indians and the gran
tees of the Governor and Company.
But no such trouble ever existed in
this town. The general assembly in
May, 1920. voted to grant the whole
tract, except few isolated previous
grants which were quite small and
unimportant, to Roger Wolcott of
Windsor, John Burr of Fairfield, John
Riggs of Derby, Samuel Green and
George Clark of Milford. John Stone
of Stamford, Ebenezer Fitch of Wind
sor and Peter Pratt of Hartford, max
ing eight proprietors in all, and the
governor executed a deed. The con-
sideration paid to the colony was
e510. These gentlemen were some
of the principal men of the colony.
of Roger Wolcott, especially, it may
be said that he was the foremost man
of the colony in his day. If there
was trouble in a church, if there was
disputed boundary, if there were
conflicting titles to land, he was the
man almost invariably selected by the
assembly TO go and adjust matters.
He was by profession a lawyer. held
in succession all the military titles,
was cOmmauder-iu chief of the Con-
necticut forces in the expedition
against Louisburg, was judge in the
highest court and finally, in 1850,
became governor of the colony. He
was a young man when he became in
terested in Wellington land, and gen.
orally in our records he is called
Major Wolcott, ESQ.," Whether the
motive of these original proprietors
in buying the land was to make the
desert bloom and to extend the wealth
and resources of the colony, or wheth-
er it was a speculation, am unable
to say. Perhaps a little of both. At
any rate they didn't lose anything.
They soon took in as a partner John
Reed. who then lived Oh a great es-
tate of his own in Fairfield county.
He called his place there hometown"
as it didn't belong to any town. Thus
there were nine proprietors in all
highway from Willimantic river to
Ashford line. This road was, no
doubt, intended to be part of a grand
east and west thoroughfare across the
colony, as it was laid out 10 rods
wide throughout. When, however,
the town regulated" the road in
1870, it was found that the width of
10 rods interfered in some places with
the rights of individual owners, and
accordingly it was settled that from
the Willimantie to near the road
which passes by the school house it
should be two rods wide, from there
to near the road from the Glass Fac
tory to. sharp's four rods, and all the
restSsots thesway. 10 rods. This road