The Archives

Volume XLVI No. 2 - August 2018

Tavern on the Green Part II - Willington Common & Meeting House Green

Prior to the opening of Glazier's tavern, and the opening of the Windham and Mansfield Turnpike and Tolland County Turnpike, there had been a renewed focus on the area in and around Willington Hill. In the 1780s, Tolland County was formed and licenses for public houses were granted by the County Superior Court. In Willington, there were renewed calls for the repair of the Meeting House. By the 1790s debate turned to building a new Congre-gational Meeting House as the old Meeting House was in a state of disrepair. Town meeting locations were split between the Baptist Meeting House on Village Hill and the Congrega-tional Meeting House on Willington Hill. 

Town Meeting records document the discussions about the Meeting House and activity around the Green; Town land records show who was involved in that activity. In 1796 the Town voted to give Miner Grant liberty to build a store on the Green south of the Congrega-tional Meeting House. In 1797, Thomas Peck was allowed to set up a store near the Meeting House in a building he bought in 1792. The description in the deed indicated that it was the origi-nal home lot for the Reverend Gideon Noble. This would be the same lot where Deacon Turner's Greek Revival was built in 1849. In October 1797 the Boston Turnpike (Route 44) was chartered and open for business and perhaps coincidentally, a new road across town that would connect to it was being discussed. 

Working from the Public Records of the State, one might assume that planning for the Tol-land County Turnpike began in 1800; however, local discussion of the route is recorded in Town Meeting records in 1795 with mention of a proposed new road from Fall Brook Hill to Benjamin Nye’s. Using present day landmarks that would be Wenberg Hill to West Willing-ton. In other words, the road would run from the Willimantic River to the Ashford town line. Interestingly, this route is shown on Mathew Carey's 1796 map of Connecticut included in Carey's Guthrie Atlas. The Carey map would suggest that the route through Willington was well known as a primary road leading from the Tolland Courthouse. 

According to Town Meeting records, the plan was to make the road four rods (66 feet) wide a mile in each direction from the center of town and two rods (33 feet) wide the rest of the way. The width of the road was the legal Right-of-Way, not the actual traveled surface. The width of the section of this road along the Green on Willington Hill was ten rods wide in 1730. Even though the right-of-way width varied over the years, the course of the route along the Green was essentially the same as shown on Josiah Conant’s 1726 plot of Willing-ton, the road that came to be known as Wolcott’s Road. Of course, as the records suggest, by the time any action is voted on for these kinds of local projects, there have been years of planning and discussion. 

What led up to the seemingly recent activity on Willington Hill? Perhaps a look back at what had been in the works along Major Wolcott’s Road would offer some clues. 

Mark Palmer 

Historian, Town of Willington 

Tavern on the Green Part III - A Town Center

In the 1790s, Willington Hill was experiencing something of a renewal. Some thirty years earlier, circa 1766, well before a new road, some new stores and a new Meeting House on the Hill were discussed, there was talk of moving the Congregational Meeting House to the center of town, considered by some at the time to be East Willington. John Merrick called the Fenton River part of town, the city. East Willington, with its col-lection of mills and shops was a center of economic activity. In 1772, the Town voted to build and maintain seven bridges in town, five on the Fenton River and two on Roaring Brook, all on roads associated with mills. 

By the 1770s, the Fenton River powered a majority of the town’s saw, grist, fulling and woolen mills, forges and water powered shops. There was a malt house, as well as shoe and comb shops. Many of these busi-nesses continued operation well into the 1800s. The list of mills on the Fenton River started upstream at Captain Ebenezer Heath's saw mill on Turnpike Road (Center Turnpike, the Colonial era old Woodstock to Hartford Road). 

Further downstream at Forestville were a woolen factory, carding and fulling mills, saw mill and black-smith. These were just off Tinkerville Road, on the old Union Road to Ashford that led to the Westford Con-gregational Society Meeting House. Samuel Stiles, was one of a long list of owner/operators for a saw and grist mill at Liska Road. Gould Stiles apparently added a forge. The site was sold to Daniel Dimock and then to Origin Dimock. 

The Weston mills and Samuel Duntons forge were further downstream, just above Wolcott’s Road (Route 74) where it crossed the Fenton River. John Weston started out with a malt house and saw mill on Georges Brook. He added a saw and grist mill on the Fenton River which was later operated by his son James. Downstream, just below Wolcott’s Road were Joseph Brown’s mills. Clement Topliff was given liberty to build a mill abutting Brown and he apparently used Brown’s sluiceway. Further downstream was Ebenezer Heath Senior's saw and grist mill in Daleville. By the late 1780s, Roger Wolcott's 1726 road across town had become the main thoroughfare connecting West Willington, Willington Hill and East Willington. 

By the mid-1790sWillington Hill was connected to all the major mill sites in town. From the Fenton River east to connections north on the old Stafford Road, Eldredge Mills Road led to the 1750s Nehemiah Parker mill site that became the Eldredge Mills complex on Roaring Brook. Further north were the Lillibridge mills on the Elias Lee mill site near the Stafford town line. The roads south from Willington Hill pointed to Thom-as Peck and Daniel Gurley’s mill on the Willimantic River and Ebenezer Heath's mills in Daleville. West of Willington Hill saw mills on Conant Brook such as the Abel Johnson, later Robert Sharp's saw mill and his brother-in-law James Holt's woodworking shop and the Johnson Thread works in South Willington. But by 1799, Willington Hill was apparently considered the center of town again and probably an ideal place for a new Public House. 

As 1800 was heralded in, Willington Hill had a new Congregational Meeting House on land purchased from Abel Holmes at the present corner of Jared Sparks Road and Common Road. The old Meeting House had stood just a few rods to the south. Town meetings were now held in the basement of the new Meeting House. The turnpike road ran past the Green and plans for another were in the works. 

One question remains, if the Glazier Tavern was one stop on a stage road, where were the other stops? Where were the other taverns up and down the line” And for the historical sleuth, where would we find clues about the connections, their dates of operation and locations? 

Mark Palmer 

Historian, Town of Willington 

To be continued…