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Built
in 1797, the Old
State House is Hartford's oldest public building.Yet it is not
the first structure on that site. Colonists built meeting houses
on or near the spot starting from the arrival of Thomas Hooker's
party in 1636. (Corbis photo.)
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Hartford History
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about the history of Hartford. If you have a question that isn't addressed here, try using the search engine on the site's Home page or posting on the Bulletin Board.
Also expect additions to this page. Send suggestions to Kevin@HartfordHistory.net.
- Who founded Hartford and when?
- How did the city get its name?
- Who lived in the area before Europeans arrived?
- What was so special about the government created by Hooker?
- What is the Charter Oak?
- Why is Hartford known as the Insurance City?
- Who or what started the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944?
- Where can I examine old newspapers?
- What is Barbour silver?
Who founded Hartford and when?
About 100 Puritans, led by the Rev. Thomas Hooker, created a settlement on the banks of the Connecticut River in June 1636. Though this became Hartford, Hooker and his followers were not the first Europeans on the scene. Dutch traders had already built a fort at the confluence of the Connecticut and Park rivers. (For more on their fate, visit the Adriaen's Landing section of this site.) Nevertheless, Hooker not only created a lasting colony but a form of government that influenced the creation of the U.S. Constitution a century and a half later.
See below for more on Hooker. Visit the Connecticut State Library site for a list of the other founders.
How did the city get its name?
It was named for Hertford, England, the birthplace of one of Hooker's assistants, the Rev. Samuel Stone.
Who lived in the area before the Europeans arrived?
The Saukiogs (Black Earth) occupied the Hartford area before Europeans arrived. The Podunks lived across the Connecticut River in what is now East Hartford, Glastonbury, and South Windsor. The Tunxis tribe lived to the west, in what is now the Farmington area.
Dutch explorers, led by Adriaen Van Block, appeared in 1614; shortly thereafter, an outbreak of measles or smallpox killed at least one-third of the Podunk population.
A Podunk chief,
Wahginnacut, journeyed to Massachusetts in 1631 and invited the English
colonists there to found a new settlement in the Connecticut River Valley.
He wanted protection from the feared and hated Pequot tribe, which occupied
what is now the southeast corner of the state. When the English arrived,
they found the Hartford area ruled by Saukiog chief Sequassen, who in
1636 sold them the land that became Hartford and West Hartford. Saquassen
fought fiercely with both the Pequots and the Mohegans, who also lived
to the southeast. The
Saukiogs "suffered severe defeats,"
according to Albert Van Dusen, author of "Connecticut,"
the preeminent history of the state. "As a result," he wrote,
"the Saukiogs remained quite friendly with the colonists and lived
near Hartford until about 1730."
What was so special about the government created by Hooker and the
other founders?
When he lectured in his native England, Hooker drew large crowds - and
unfriendly scrutiny from the state-supported Church of England. The Puritans
had been hoping to reform, or "purify," the church, but at that point
the church was purging itself of Puritans, so Hooker was ordered to appear
before the High Commission, also known as "the star chamber." Instead,
he jumped bond and fled to Holland.
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| A statue of Thomas Hooker stands in Old State House Square. (Karen O'Maxfield photo.) |
From Holland, Hooker and a group of his parishioners made the trying and dangerous voyage across the Atlantic to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settling in Cambridge, which was then known as Newtown. But they disliked the decidedly undemocratic ways of the colony's government and decided to investigate for themselves reports of fertile land in the Connecticut River Valley.
On May 31, 1638, exactly two years after he had set out from Newtown, Hooker delivered a sermon containing his vision of how the recently named Hartford should govern itself.
"The foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people," he said. He went on to argue that the "choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God's own allowance" and that "they who have the power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power also to set the bounds and limitations of the power and the place unto which they call them."
Historian Ellsworth Grant wrote, "These words were the first practical assertion ever made of the right of the governed not only to choose their rulers but to limit their powers."
The founders of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor used this sermon and others from Hooker as a basis for their Fundamental Orders, considered by some to be the world's first written constitution. It's why Connecticut came to be known as the Constitution State. The Connecticut State Library site has the text of the orders.
What is the Charter Oak?
The "Charter Oak incident," though never fully proven as fact, remains one of the most exciting chapters in both Hartford and Connecticut history.
Thanks to
the diplomacy of Gov. John Winthrop Jr., the General Court of Connecticut
won a charter from King Charles II on Oct. 9, 1662. Among other things,
the document legitimized
all exisiting settlements in Connecticut,
set the boundaries of the colony, and -
most importantly - perpetuated
the rights laid out in the Fundamental Orders, allowing
the colonists a high degree of self-government.
(See the
Connecticut State Library site for the text
of the charter.)
On October 27, 1687, Andros' party met with Gov. Robert Treat and other
colonists at the public meeting house. Andros again demanded surrender
of the charter; Treat responded with a long speech in defense of the colony.
The debate went on for hours. Eventually, candles had to be lit - darkness
fell early at that time of year. With the Charter on the table between
the opposing parties, the room suddenly went dark. Moments later, when
the candles were re-lighted, the charter was gone. Captain Joseph Wadsworth
is credited with swiping the document and hiding it nearby, in the trunk
of a giant white oak before the home of Samuel Wyllys, one of the magistrates
of the colony.
"This
secreting of the charter in the great Charter Oak tree soon grew into
one of Connecticut's cherished traditions," historian Albert V. Van
Dusen wrote. "Whether or not the charter ever was actually put there,
even for a few hours, is a matter of conjecture. It does seem fairly certain,
though, that the charter actually was spirited away under cover of darkness."
He noted that 28 years later, in 1715, the colony paid Wadsworth 20 shillings
for "securing the Duplicate Charter of this Colony in a very troublesome
season."
Yet, despite all the drama of that night, the colony effectively surrendered
to Andros, who named Treat and John Allyn to his council and made various
other Dominion appointments before leaving. Van Dusen observed, though,
that Andros "undoubtedly felt vexed at his failure to obtain the
charter." Moreoever, the colonists had only recorded that he was
taking control; they never made a positive vote of submission.
Andros' reign did not last long anyway. The spring of 1689 brought news
of the Glorious Revolution in England. James II had fled to France; in
Boston, Andros was arrested. Connecticut colonists convinced James' successors,
William and Mary, to confirm the 1662 charter.
But by the time James II assumed the throne 25 years later, England wanted
greater integration of the New England colonies - and more centralized
control. Sir Edmund Andros, assigned by the king to rule New York and
all of the New England colonies in a single "Dominion of New England,"
demanded return of Connecticut's charter. After trying various strategies
for accomplishing this, he finally marched to Hartford with an armed force
to seize it. The following is legend:
The tree itself lasted another century and a half as a cherished landmark. According to historian Ellsworth Grant, its base eventually reached a circumference of 33 feet. When a windstorm finally toppled it in 1856, the marching band belonging to gunmaker Samuel Colt played funeral dirges on the site. In 1907, the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars erected a monument at the corner of Charter Oak Avenue and Charter Oak Place, near the spot where the tree stood. The monument remains.
In tribute
to the Charter Oak legend, Connecticut designated the white oak as the
state tree.
Why is Hartford known as the Insurance City?
Like so much about Hartford, the story begins at the Connecticut River.
The city rose to prominence in the 1700s as a river port, serving as a
conduit for goods arriving from or heading to places like England, Bermuda,
and the Far East. River captains, who met frequently on the wharves and
in coffee houses, often arranged to share voyage risks and profits. From
these informal arrangements, the Hartford insurance industry sprang, eventually
offering much more than marine coverage.
In 1794, wealthy Hartford merchant Jeremiah Wadsworth and some friends
began offering fire insurance on an informal basis. In 1810, the Connecticut
General Assembly awarded a charter to the state's first publicly owned
insurance firm, The Hartford Fire Insurance Co. The Aetna Fire Insurance
Co. opened for business nine years later. But the city's reputation as
a reliable insurer wasn't made until the calamitous New York City fires
of 1835 and 1845, when Hartford companies fulfilled their payment promises,
while many others didn't.
No Connecticut company offered life insurance until 1846, at least in
part because the local clergy regarded it as immoral. That year, however,
saw the formation of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Hartford.
Insurance companies sprang up elsewhere in the U.S. during this period,
so how did Hartford end up with the monicker? Historian Ellsworth Grant
puts it this way: "The uniqueness of Hartford's companies lay in
building a solid reputation for staying solvent, keeping their promises
to pay losses, hanging on in times of disaster, and initiating new types
of insurance."
Hartford insurers were the first to offer accident, auto, and aviation
policies, among other innovations. In World War II, The Travelers helped
insure the creation of the atomic bomb. This experience led to Hartford
insurers' vital role in the development of peacetime atomic energy.
Today, the state government counts 106 insurance companies based in Connecticut.
.
Several officials of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
served prison terms for negligence in the fire, which killed 167 people.
But no one was ever charged with starting it. Stewart O'Nan devotes a
chapter of his book "The Circus Fire" to Robert Dale Segee,
whom Ohio authorities arrested in connection with a series of arson fires
in 1950. It turned out that Segee had been with the circus at the time
of the Hartford fire, as a member of a lighting crew. He initially confessed
to setting that fire as well but eventually recanted, claiming Ohio authorities
had simply talked him into believing he had. Ohio's refusal to let Connecticut
investigators interview Segee didn't help either. After serving four years
on the Ohio charges, he was declared a paranoid schizophrenic and committed
for a time to a state hospital for the insane. He died in Columbus, Ohio,
in August 1997.
For more information, visit the site's resource
page on the fire.
Where can I examine old newspapers?
For many years, Hartford was served by two daily newspapers: the morning
Hartford Courant and the afternoon Hartford Times. The Times published
from 1817 until 1976. Much of its morgue, including photographs, have
been incorporated into the Hartford
Collection of the Hartford Public Library. Old papers can be viewed
on microfilm at the HPL or at the Connecticut
State Library, also located in Hartford. The Courant began in 1764
as the Connecticut Courant and today serves as both the only statewide
newspaper in Connecticut and the only daily paper in Hartford. The Courant
does not allow the public into its morgue. Old copies are kept on microfilm
and CD-ROM at most Hartford-area public libraries.
Despite the great interest in Barbour silver - many people own it, apparently - information on its history is sketchy. Here's what researchers at the Connecticut Historical Society uncovered:
In 1881 or 1882, Samuel Barbour moved from Chicago to New Haven, Conn., where he and his brother Charles joined in forming the Barbour Brothers Co. At this point, they were only marketers of silverplate products made by I. J. Steane & Co. of Hartford. But the brothers were operating in Hartford by no later than 1889, since the Geer's city directory for that year contains the listing, "Barbour Bros. Co. silverplated ware mfgs.., 64 Market St." (Market Street, located downtown, has been altered greatly since then.)
In 1892, a decade or so after its formation, the brothers' original partnership was succeeded by the Barbour Silver Co., which also succeeded Steane & Co. The 1889 edition of the Geer's city directory has a listing for "Barbour Silver Co., Silversmiths, 62 Market St."
Barbour Silver became one of the first silver firms absorbed by the International Silver Co. of Meriden, Conn., when that concern was established in 1898.
Sources
Web sites
What is Barbour silver?
State of Connecticut:
About Connecticut: Interesting Facts About the State of Connecticut
Books
Andrews, Gregory E., and Ransom, David F., "Structures and Styles: Guided Tours of Hartford Architecture," The Connecticut Historical Society and the Connecticut Architecture Foundation, 1988.
Arnold, Robert H., "Hartford: Yesterday and Today," Farmcliff Press, 1985.
Grant, Ellsworth S., "The Miracle of Connecticut," The Connecticut Historical Society.
Grant, Ellsworth Strong, and Grant, Marion Hepburn, "The City of Hartford, 1784-1984," Connecticut Historical Society, 1986.
O'Nan, Stewart, "The Circus Fire: A True Story," Doubleday, 2000.
Van Dusen, Albert E., "Connecticut," Random House, 1961.
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