Wethersfield Historical Society
History Happens Every Day
Slavery and Wethersfield by Martha Smart The past is never dead. It is not even past. William Faulkner Sugar and Slavery The popular book, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, written by Elizabeth George Speare in 1957, tells the story of Kit Tyler, orphaned on Barbados, traveling to relatives in Wethersfield …
Wethersfield Historical Society curator, Kristina Oschmann, shares short profiles of six of the notable women from Wethersfield’s history featured in the Wethersfield Museum’s upcoming exhibit “Women of Wethersfield”. Scheduled to open in mid October 2020, the exhibit is being offered in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in …
Continue reading “WHS Virtual Summer Program 2020: IV. Women of Wethersfield”
Welcome to Wethersfield Historical Society’s Virtual Summer Program for 2020. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to welcome you in person to the Wethersfield Museum at the Keeney Memorial Cultural Center, or have as many of you as we would like in to visit the Hurlbut-Dunham House …
Continue reading “WHS Virtual Summer Program 2020: I. The American Revolution”
Jared Butler Standish by John M. Oblak and Kayla M. Pittman Jared Butler Standish was born on 4 September 1866, the son of James Tryon Standish, Jr. and Jershua McCallen (Churchill) Griswold, and the seventh of their ten eventual children. The Standish family, as others at the time, named their …
The XVth Annual Taste of Wethersfield – It was our sincere hope that “Taste XV” could be successfully rescheduled this year, but the ongoing uncertainty of when the pandemic will abate makes planning for the event an impossibility. The event has been rescheduled for April 10, 2021. If you have …
Continue reading “The XVth Annual Taste of Wethersfield Postponed”
Rediscovering Benjamin Lee Whorf by Jim Meehan “She was amazed she even had the language left to think with, assuming people thought in language at all” (“City on Fire” by Garth Risk Hallberg) “Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” (Benjamin Lee Whorf) I …
The obituary of William W. Anderson gave the outlines of a life story, but as with most obituaries, the details are lacking. This document records both what he wrote about part of his service in World War II and what his son remembers from stories told. From the Bangor Daily …
SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES OF WETHERSFIELD RESIDENTS Below are biographical sketches of ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives that reflect the town’s history and character. Included in these selected biographies are a Revolutionary soldier, free African American, prison guard, sea captain and entrepreneurial bonnet maker. Just click on the names below and …
Burying Ground Timeline DATE BURYING GROUND HISTORY 1638-1638 Burying Ground was established by Town of Wethersfield on Hungry Hill. No burial lots were sold, burials were permitted wherever there was a vacancy. 1684 Nathaniel Bowman lost land to burying ground in land dispute. Burying ground expanded to 115.5 feet wide …
Continue reading “History Of Ancient Burying Ground And Village Cemetery”
Nothing, however, became of the proposed Goodwin Park Extension. Nor, until 1938, did the town begin to acquire, mostly by foreclosure, the land in that area – including 30.2 acres from Charles Woodward. The land purchases continued up to 1964, one year after it officially received its current name. The …