1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Windsor (Connecticut)
WINDSOR, a township of Hartford county, Connecticut, U.S.A., on the Connecticut and Farmington rivers, adjoining the city of Hartford on the N. Pop. (1890) 2954; (1900) 3614, 596 being foreign-born; (1910) 4178. Area about 27 sq. m. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway and by electric lines to Hartford and to Springfield, Massachusetts. Among the buildings are the Congregational Church, built in 1794 (the church itself was organized in 1630 in England), the Protestant Episcopal Church (1864) and the Roger Ludlow School. In Windsor are the Campbell School (for girls) and a public library (1888). The Loomis Institute (incorporated 1874 and 1905) for the gratuitous education of persons between 12 and 20 years of age has been heavily endowed by gifts of the Loomis family. Tobacco and market vegetables are raised in Windsor, and among its manufactures are paper, canned goods, knit and woollen goods, cigars and electrical supplies.[1]
In 1633 Captain William Holmes, of the Plymouth Colony, established near the mouth of the Farmington river a trading post, the first settlement by Englishmen in Connecticut; a more important and a permanent settlement (until 1637 called New Dorchester) was made in 1635 by immigrants from Dorchester, Massachusetts, led by the Rev. John Wareham, Roger Ludlow and others. In 1639 representatives from Windsor, with those from Wethersfield and Hartford, organized the Connecticut Colony. Among the original land-holders were Matthew Grant and Thomas Dewey, ancestors respectively of General U. S. Grant and Admiral George Dewey; and Captain John Mason (1600–1672), the friend of Miles Standish, was one of its early citizens. It was the birthplace of Roger Wolcott, of the older Oliver Wolcott (1726–1797), of Oliver Ellsworth (whose home is now a historical museum), and of Edward Rowland Sill. Windsor has been called “The Mother of Towns”; it originally included the territory now constituting the present township, and the townships of East Windsor (1768), Ellington (1786), South Windsor (1845), Simsbury (1670), Granby (1786), East Granby (1858), Bloomfield (1835) and Windsor Locks (1854).
See H. R. Stiles, Ancient Windsor (2 vols., New York, 1891; revised edition).
- ↑ In the township of Windsor Locks (pop. 1910, 3715), immediately north, cotton yarn and thread, silk, paper, steel and machinery are manufactured.