Putnam patriot., 1908-04-24
Windham County's Bargain Centre Putnam Conn

so fnassiteiY by early settlers. Wdowefe nnIaWted ny any lahae possible taF men to accomplish, a9 Beiug oeated iii the present forest where the old road was abandoned, because. when t6e Bo9- ton and Hartford tufnpke 1eas baIt, il passed around the hill on a more south efty course, called .tthe old Hall road near Pulpit Rock, leaving the bridges very much 10 the north and quite Use less, thus absorbing the Mcclellan Hill altogether. Today had there been no interest in the oli Connecticut Path. there would have been probably no ta- tereSt in the old bridges oi changes from the old trail to the newer "turnpike.a
 The writer of the article upon Che old bridges packed as large an amount of history into as little space as possible, much ol which We would like 10 quote bui space forbids, for il has appeared in qaentY k q proof it Nas an Indian trail before white men came into that region,
 The old Boston and New York turn pike is an illustration of the fact that white mems highways followed Indian full in the PATRIOT in the fall of 1906. where the writer first saw it. The fol- lowing quotation is very interesting in this connection: After years, The Old Connecticut Trail became the white mans highway, and the path was no longer pressed by the tread of niocea- sined feet. For many years this famous road was one of the prominent connee- ting links between Boston, Hartford and New York. It was the same road that the first pioneer, John Oldham, travelled, that the Waiertown band and
 Dorchester Company have followed, and Il soon became The chief thorougl4- fare for the white settlers in the south ern section of the country. The aban- dened section of the older road, and the bridges were known te few In fact
 the father of the writer of the article on the stone bridges, t0 the manor born where his ancestor was one of the ofigi- nal settlers of Woodstock, he living in the town for s2 wears, apparently never knew of the existence of these bridges.
 which connected 8 little island with the main road. "The stones are all very ! larve and rpntaf., as ,,,as.s,-,,, .. .t-
 As they'did two hundred years ago. On each side of the bank of the stream are
 walls of rock supporting large dat stones foot thick each, weighing sey- eral tons, making the roadway. Here they remain uncemented. but strong enough 10 withstand the great annual treshets of spring and fall. Over this trail and through the track less wider ness, in leso, a score or more of the Pu- Titan fathers travelled with their fami- ties from RoNhury, leading their fioeks and heards, seeking new homes in the wilderness, the promised land, situated on the summit of a high hill covered d tiement was made and called New Rox. bury. which later was called Wood. stock. The writer might have said. just fifty years before this event, over this old "Nood>ioek Path the most eventful migration of an English popa- lstion in America took it's way 10 the dis. tant banks of the Great River through wilderness more dense and distant
 unknown, and unappruachahle, than the shorter journey Of lhe Woodstock pioneers who were using trail known and traVeled ey white men, more or less, for half century Curiouslx, loo. this Nahhaquas>et country, fertile he- yond compare to The older RaNharv. was overlooked by The white pioneers who took the longer Journey. And equally true k il, that much of the ter ritoIy lying between these settlements