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COLONIES IN CONNECTICUT The Dutch were the first Europeans in Connecticut. In 1614 Adriaen Block explored the coast of Long Island Sound , and sailed up the Connecticut River at least as far as modern Hartford, Connecticut . By 1623 , the new Dutch West India Company regularly traded for furs there and ten years later they fortified it for protection from the Pequot Indians as well as from the expanding English colonies. They fortified the site, which was named "House of Hope" (also identified as "Good Hope" and "Hope"), but encroaching English colonization made them agree to withdraw in the Treaty Of Hartford , and by 1654 they were gone. The first English colonists came from the Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts , and they settled at Windsor in 1633 , Wethersfield (1634), and, led by Thomas Hooker , Hartford (1636). The Bay colony also built Fort Saybrook at the mouth of the River in 1636. Another Puritan group started the New Haven Colony in 1637 . The Massachusetts colonies did not seek to absorb their progeny in Connecticut and Rhode Island into the Massachusetts governments. Communication and travel was too difficult, and it was also convenient to have a place for nonconformists to go. The English settlement and trading post at Windsor especially threatened the Dutch trade, since it was upriver and more accessible to the Indians from the interior. That fall and winter the Dutch sent a party upriver as far as modern Springfield, Massachusetts spreading gifts to convince the Indians to bring their trade to the Dutch post at Hartford. Unfortunately they also spread Smallpox and by the end of the 1633-34 winter the Indian population of the entire valley was reduced from over 8,000 to less than 2,000. This left the fertile valley wide open to further settlement. The Pequot War ''Main article:'' Pequot War . The Pequot War is the first serious armed conflict between the indigenous peoples and the settlers in New England. The ravages of disease, coupled with trade pressures invited the Pequots to tighten their hold on the river tribes. Additional incidents began to involve the colonists in the area in 1635 and next spring their raid on Wethersfield prompted the three towns to meet. Following the raid on Wethersfield, the war climaxed when 300 Pequot men, women, and children were burned out of their village, hunted down and massacred. On May 1 , 1637 they each sent delegates to the first General Court held at the meeting house in Hartford. This was the start of self government in Connecticut. They pooled their militia under the command of John Mason of Windsor, and declared war on the Pequots. When the war was over, there were officially no more Pequots. The Treaty Of Hartford in 1638 reached agreements with the other tribes that gave the colonists the Pequot lands. Under the Fundamental Orders ''Main article:'' Fundamental Orders Of Connecticut The River Towns had created a general government when faced with the demands of a war. In 1639 , they took the unprecedented step of documenting the source and form of that government. They enumerated individual rights and concluded that a free people were the only source of government's authority. Rapid growth and expansion grew under this new regime. On April 22 , 1662 the Connecticut Colony succeeded in gaining a Royal Charter that embodied and confirmed the self-government that they had created with the Fundamental Orders. The only significant change was that it called for a single Connecticut government with a southern limit at Long Island Sound , and a western limit of the Pacific ocean, which meant that this charter was still inconflict with the New Netherland colony. Since 1638 , the New Haven Colony had been independent of the river towns, but there was another factor added to the Charter. The new government in New York , under the Duke of York (a distrusted Catholic), had already taken their settlements on Long Island. By January, 1665 they gave in and sent delegates from their towns to the general court. Indian pressures were relieved for some time by the severity and ferocity of the Pequot War. King Philip's War ( 1675 - 1676 ) brought renewed fighting to Connecticut. Although primarily a war of Massachusetts , Connecticut provided men and supplies. This war effectively removed any remaining Indian influence in Connecticut. The Dominion of New England In 1686 , Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned as the Royal Governor of the Dominion Of New England . Andros maintained that his commission superseded their 1662 Charter. At first, Connecticut ignored this situation. But in late October of 1687, Andros arrived with troops and naval support. Governor Robert Treat had no choice but to convene the assembly. Andros met with the governor and General Court on the evening of October 31 , 1687 . Governor Andros praised their industry and government, but after he read them his commission, he demanded their charter. As they placed it on the table, people blew out all the candles. When the light was restored the charter was missing. According to legend, it was hidden in the Charter Oak . Sir Edmund named four members to his Council for the Government of New England and proceeded to his capital at Boston . Since Andros viewed New York and Massachusetts as the important parts of his Dominion, he mostly ignored Connecticut. Aside from some taxes demanded and sent to Boston, Connecticut also mostly ignored the new government. When word arrived that the Glorious Revolution had placed William And Mary on the throne, the citizens of Boston drove Andros into exile. The Connecticut court met and voted on May 9 , 1689 to restore the Charter. They also reelected Robert Treat as governor each year until 1698 . TERRITORIAL DISPUTES According to a 1650 agreement with the Dutch , the western boundary of Connecticut ran north from the west side of Greenwich Bay "provided the said line come not within 10 miles of Hudson River." On the other hand, Connecticut's original Charter in 1662 granted it all the land to the "South Sea", ''i.e.'' the Pacific Ocean . ALL that parte of our dominions in Newe England in America bounded on the East by Norrogancett River, commonly called Norrogancett Bay, where the said River falleth into the Sea, and on the North by the lyne of the Massachusetts Plantacon, and on the south by the Sea, and in longitude as the lyne of the Massachusetts Colony, runinge from East to West, (that is to say) from the Said Norrogancett Bay on the East to the South Sea on the West parte, with the Islands thervnto adioyneinge, Together with all firme lands ... TO HAVE AND TO HOLD ... for ever... Needless to say, this brought it into territorial conflict with those states which currently lie between Connecticut and the Pacific. A Patent issued on March 12 , 1664 , granted the Duke Of York "all the land from the west side of Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay." In October, 1664 , Connecticut and New York agreed to grant Long Island to New York, and establish the boundary between Connecticut and New York as a line from the Mamaroneck River "north-northwest to the line of the Massachusetts", crossing the Hudson River near Peekskill and the boundary of Massachusetts near the northwest corner of the current Ulster County, New York . This agreement was never really accepted, however, and boundary disputes continued. The Governor of New York issued arrest warrants for residents of Greenwich, Rye , and Stamford, and founded a settlement north of Tarrytown in what Connecticut considered part of its territory in May of 1682 . Finally, on November 28 , 1683 , the states negotiated a new agreement establishing the border as 20 miles east of the Hudson River , north to Massachusetts. In recognition of the wishes of the residents, the 61,660 acres east of the Byram River making up the Panhandle were granted to Connecticut, in exchange for Rye, New York and a 1.81 mile wide strip of land running north from Ridgefield to Massachusetts alongside Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester Counties, New York, known as the "Oblong". In the 1750s , the western frontier remained on the other side of New York. In 1754 the Susquehannah Company of Windham, Connecticut obtained from a group of Native Americans a deed to a tract of land along the Susquehanna River which covered about one-third of Pennsylvania. This venture met with the disapproval of not only Pennsylvania, but also of many in Connecticut including the Deputy Governor, who opposed Governor Jonathan Trumbull 's support for the company, fearing that pressing these claims would endanger the charter of the colony. In 1769 , Wilkes-Barre was founded by John Durkee and a group of 240 Connecticut settlers. The British government finally ruled "that no Connecticut settlements could be made until the royal pleasure was known". In 1773 the issue was settled in favor of Connecticut and Westmoreland, Connecticut was established as a town and later a county. Pennsylvania did not accede to the ruling, however, and Open Warfare broke out between them and Connecticut, ending with an attack in July, 1778 , which killed approximately 150 of the settlers and forced thousands to flee. While they periodically attempted to regain their land, they were continuously repulsed, until in December, 1783 , a commission ruled in favor of Pennsylvania. After complex litigation, in 1786 Connecticut dropped its claims by a Deed Of Cession to Congress, in exchange for freedom for war debt and confirmation of the rights to land further west in present-day Ohio, which became known as the Western Reserve . Pennsylvania granted the individual settlers from Connecticut the titles to their land claims. Although the region had been called Westmoreland County, Connecticut, it has no relationship with the current Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The Western Reserve which Connecticut received in recompense for giving up all claims to any Pennsylvania land in 1786 constituted a strip of land in what is currently northeast Ohio , 120 miles wide from east to west bordering Lake Erie and Pennsylvania . Connecticut owned this territory until selling it to the Connecticut Land Company in 1795 for $1,200,000, who resold parcels of land to settlers. In 1796 , the first settlers, led by Moses Cleaveland , began a community which was to become Cleveland, Ohio ; in a short time, the area became known as "New Connecticut", and in many ways is still reminiscent of New England, particularly in the buildings built at that time. An area 25 miles wide at the western end of the Western Reserve, set aside by Connecticut in 1792 to compensate those from Danbury, New Haven, Fairfield, Norwalk, and New London who had suffered heavy losses when they were burnt out by fires set by British raids during the War Of Independence , became known as the Firelands . By this time, however, most of those granted the relief by the state were either dead or too old to actually move there. The Firelands now constitutes Erie and Huron Counties, as well as part of Ashland County, Ohio. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1775-1789) Connecticut was the only one of the 13 Colonies involved in the American Revolution that did not have an internal revolution of its own. It had been largely self-governing since its beginnings. Governor Jonathan Trumbull was elected every year from 1769 to 1784 . Connecticut's government continued unchanged even after the revolution, until the United States Constitution was adopted in 1789 . A Connecticut Privateer was the Guilford {formerly HMS MArs}. EARLY UNITED STATES (1789-1818) THE 1818 CONSTITUTION (1818-1890) Up until this time, Connecticut had adhered to the 1662 Charter, and with the independence of the American colonies over forty years prior, much of what the Charter stood for was no longer relevant. In 1818, a new constitution was adopted that was the first piece of written legislation to separate church and state in Connecticut, and give equality all religions. Gubernatorial powers were also expanded as well as increased independence for courts by allowing their judges to serve life terms. For this document see: 1818 Constitution . THE MODERN ERA (AFTER 1890) Due to Connecticut's rapid industralization in the late 19th century, cities such as New Haven , Waterbury and Hartford became attractive prospects for immigrant populations. These groups hailed from mostly Italy , Ireland , Poland , and other Eastern Europe an countries, brining much needed labor and Catholicism to a historically Protestant state. A great number of Jewish people settled as well, making Connecticut's population almost 30% immigrant by 1910. World War I came as a shock to many Americans who never thought such a faraway European conflict could ever affect them. Yet for the relatively short period of time the United States was involved in the conflict (1917-1918), munitions were the most prosperous business in Connecticut, and would remain so until the Great Depression . With rising unemployment in both urban and rural areas, Connecticut Democrats saw their chance to return to power. The hero of the movement was Yale English professor Governor Wilbur Lucius Cross (1931-1939), who emulated much of Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal policies by creating new public services and instituted a minimum wage. However, in 1938 the Democratic Party was wracked by controversy, which quickly allowed the Republicans to gain control once again, with Governor Raymond E. Baldwin . Connecticut would remain a rather competitive, two-party state. A lingering Depression soon gave way to unparalleled opportunity with the United States involvement in . In the 1950s, Connecticut became the first state to supply the country with nuclear-powered submarines. The increased job market lead Connecticut to hold the title of highest per capita income at the beginning of the 1960s. The increased standard of living could be seen in the various suburban neighborhoods that began to develop outside major cities. Former small towns became locations for large-scale development, a trend that continues to this day. Connecticut thrived until the 1980s, with many well-known corporations moving to Fairfield County , including General Electric , American Brands, and Union Carbide . Modern Connecticut became a predominantly suburban, middle-class state, with small pockets of rural areas, whose existence was perpetuated by their relative isolation from highways and cities. It was at this time that Connecticut began to acquire a significant African-American and Latino population in many of its cities, and they did not excel to the same living conditions as their white counterparts. The poor conditions that many inhabited were cause for militant movements in many areas that pushed for the Gentrification of Ghetto s and the Desegregation of the school system. Ultimately, the Supreme Court had to intervene. In 1964, the legislature adopted a new constitution which allowed "one person, one vote." The purpose of this was so that the cities could have equal representation in the Connecticut state legislature, rather than be dominated by small towns. With their newly "reconquered" land, the Pequot's initiated plans for the construction a multi-million dollar casino complex to be built on reservation land. The Foxwoods Casino was completed in 1992 and the enormous revenue it received made the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation one of the wealthiest in the country. With the newfound money, great educational and cultural initiatives were carried out, including the construction of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum And Research Center . The Mohegan Reservation gained political recognition shortly thereafter, and in 1994 opened another successful casino near the town of Uncasville . More recently, in April of 2005, Connecticut passed a law which grants all rights of marriage to same-sex couples. However, the law required that such unions be called " Civil Unions ", and that the title of marriage be limited to those unions whose parties are of the opposite sex. The state was the first to pass a law permitting civil unions without a prior court proceeding leading to the issue's saliency in state politics. HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT INDUSTRY Connecticut began, as most communities at the time, as a Farm ing economy. It rapidly developed trade and manufacturing as the farmers, and then the merchants and manufacturers themselves, became affluent enough to start buying things. Manufacturing was aided by a plenitude of resources, including water power, wood for fires and building material, and iron ore, while transportation benefited from several excellent natural harbors, and navigable rivers leading all the way to Massachusetts. As in most of New England, the residents believed that industry, in all senses of the word, not only strengthened individual moral fiber, but also served to make the colony independent and free to pursue its own religious and philosophical beliefs. While manual labor was valued, learning and study was also prized and many schools were founded, with Yale University the most significant. The development by Eli Whitney of the system of precision manufacturing of interchangeable parts and the Assembly Line in the late 1700s , however made Connecticut into a major center of manufacturing. This development changed "made in the United States" from a phrase connoting shoddy workmanship and expensive maintenance, into a world standard for high quality, and the entire system became known as the American System Of Manufacturing . Between 1800 and 1860 , Connecticut manufacturers applied the system to the manufacture of economically priced high quality firearms, leading to Connecticut's nickname "the Arsenal of Democracy ." Middletown, Connecticut was the major supplier of Pistol s to the United States government during the War Of 1812 , with numerous gun manufacturers in the area. In 1810 , Oliver Bidwell built the first Pistol factory in the United States on the Pameacha River in Middletown, winning a contract with the United States War Department for handmade pistols. Also in 1810, Colonel Simeon North built a pistol factory in Middletown on the West River, now the Coginchaug River , also winning a contract from the Secretary Of War , which led to enlarging his factory to 8,500 square feet (790 m&2); he built about 10,000 pistols a year, up until just before the Civil War , designing America's first Milling Machine . Even more successful was Colonel Nathan Starr Jr. , whose factory (built of stone quarried from the river) was about the same size as North's, and located across the river half a mile northeast. Starr initially manufactured Sword s, about 5,000 a year; including presentation swords for the state of Tennessee and War Of 1812 heroes, colonel Richard M. Johnson , General Edmond P. Gaines , and General Andrew Jackson . The factory later manufactured Musket s and rifles until 1845 , after which the United States government started government Armories in Massachusetts and West Virginia partially modeled after Starr's. In 1812 , John R. Johnson and J. D. Johnson built a factory, also on the Pameacha River, which was to sell rifles to the government until 1825 . After this period, firearm manufacturing declined in Middletown, but briefly revived during the Civil War. The Savage Revolving Fire Arm Company manufactured pistols between 1859 and 1866 , and the Sage Ammunition Works manufactured ammunition between 1864 and 1867 . In 1836 , Samuel Colt invented the Revolver design which continues to be used to this day. Colt's Manufacturing Company hired Elisha K. Root to modernize production, making Colt weapons the first in the world with truly interchangeable parts. Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson designed the first Repeating Rifle in Norwich in the early 1850s , which went into production by the New Haven Arms Company (which later became the Winchester Repeating Arms Company ), and, just across the border in Massachusetts , the Springfield Armory . Smith also patented a metallic rifle Cartridge in 1854 . Christian Sharps designed the Sharps Breech-loading rifle which in 1854 began to be manufactured in Hartford by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company . Christopher Spencer designed the Spencer Repeating Rifle which played an important role for Union troops at the Battle Of Gettysburg . Another area where precision manufacture led to industrial dominance for Connecticut was in the manufacture of Clock s, Watch es, and other Timepiece s, by Eli Terry and his apprentice Seth Thomas , the Forestville Manufacturing Company (which became the E. N. Welch Company ), the New England Clock Company , the Ansonia Clock Company , Gilbert Clocks , Ingraham Clocks , the New Haven Clock Company , Welch Clocks , Sessions Clocks , and the Waterbury Clock Company , which became Timex Corporation , and is the sole Connecticut survivor of this once flourishing field, now decimated by lower costs of production elsewhere, in the United States and overseas. The American Clock And Watch Museum is located in Bristol, Connecticut . Similarly, Connecticut industry became well known in allied fields. Hardware and Tool s continue to be manufactured by Stanley Corporation in New Britain , despite having almost moved elsewhere for financial reasons. Connecticut was a major area for development and manufacture of Machine Tool s. In 1818 , Simeon North designed America's first Milling Machine . Machinist Elisha Root first designed machinery for the Collins Company of Collinsville which manufactured Axe s which became world-famous, then was hired by Colt in 1849 to modernize firearm production by designing precision Drop Hammer s, Boring Machine s, Gauge s, Jig s, etc., and improving the milling machines designed by Francis A. Pratt for the George S. Lincoln company in Hartford; the resulting Lincoln Miller became world-famous, selling over 150,000 machines. Another Colt engineer, William Mason , patented 125 inventions for manufacture of firearms, as well as steam pumps and power looms. Christopher Spencer invented the Automatic Lathe Turret for machining screws, as well as the variable cam cylinder used to control the turret. Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney invented a thread milling machine in 1865 ; Whitney also perfected various measurement instruments and Pratt designed the original milling machine manufactured by the George S. Lincoln company of Hartford. Simon Fairman invented the Lathe Chuck in West Stafford in 1830 , and his son-in-law, Austin F. Cushman , invented the self-centering Cushman Universal Chuck in 1862 . Edward P. Bullard designed the Vertical Boring Mill in 1883 . Charles E. Billings perfected the Drop Hammer for Metal Forging in the 1870s and designed the copper Commutator central to the operation of electrical Generator s and Motor s. Edwin R. Fellows of Torrington designed the first Flat Turret Lathe , and in 1896 built a gear shaper which permitted the manufacture of effective and reliable gear transmissions for the soon-to-come automobile industry. The name Bridgeport on heavy Industrial Machinery continues to be a guarantee of high quality around the world, for people who have no idea that it is a city in Connecticut. Even the world of toys was dominated by the A. C. Gilbert Company , manufacturers of Erector Set s as well as other educational toys such as Chemistry Set s, Microscope s, Toy Train s, etc. Another area of industry where Connecticut excelled was in Bicycle manufacturing, and its spin-off, the earliest Automobile Manufacturing . Albert Pope of Hartford saw a bicycle in Philadelphia in 1876 and was immediately enthralled with the concept of an "ever-saddled horse that eats nothing and requires no care." He subsequently began the first bicycle manufacturing in America, Columbia Bicycles , and set about marketing the vehicle, setting up a system of distributorships with fixed prices, hiring doctors to tout cycling as healthy exercise, and founding cycling magazines. When the Safety Bicycle was developed in the 1880s , he was in a perfect position to benefit from the subsequent craze. Connecticut also became an innovative leader in the Shipbuilding industry. The first recorded Steam Power ed boat in America was built by South Windsor 's John Fitch in 1786 . The first military Submarine , the Turtle , was built in Connecticut in 1775 by David Bushnell ; since then, Connecticut has remained a world leader in the manufacture of these specialized ships. Simon Lake produced submarines for the US Navy in Bridgeport, beginning in 1913 , and the work done by John P. Holland led to submarine production by the Electric Boat Company in Groton beginning in 1924 , which continues to this day. In the late 1700s , the Connecticut government engaged in financial incentives for building and operating Textile mills. Between the birth of the U.S. Patent system in 1790 and 1930 , Connecticut had more patents issued per capita than any other state; in the 1800s , when the U.S. as a whole was issued one patent per three thousand population, Connecticut inventors were issued one patent for every 700–1000 residents. Connecticut's first recorded invention was a Lapidary machine, by Abel Buell of Killingworth , in 1765 . The Connecticut Valley ( Wethersfield , East Windsor , and Colchester ) was a center of Cabinetmaking and Furniture construction in the latter half of the 1700s . Beginning in the Queen Anne style, by the end of the period the furniture had evolved into four distinct variations of the Chippendale style; that of Eliphalet Chapin , one of the masters of the craft, who tended to produce pieces which were more compact and chunky in appearance, incorporating some of the Philadelphia Rococo style without as much fussiness; that of the Colchester / Norwich area, exemplified by Samuel Loomis , as well as those of the Wethersfield and Springfield – Northampton areas. REFERENCES For further information see:
The following printed resources are in the collection of the Connecticut State Library (CSL)
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