Old Connecticut Path
The Old Connecticut Path was the Native American trail that led westward from the area of
History
In lean years of the early 1630s, when the
In 1636, the dissenting minister Thomas Hooker a hundred of his congregation, and 160 cattle, followed the Old Connecticut Path in a two-weeks' journey to the Connecticut River. There they settled in a place the native Tunxis peoples called Saukiog, because of the blackness of its earth. They founded the English settlement of Hartford. By 1643, documents in the village of Sudbury called this trail the "Old Connecticut Path." In 1672, with the establishment of a postal system, it became the first colonial post road.
Route
Long native usage had emphasized the easiest route,[2] skirting the water meadows of the river bottoms and crossing streams at the most dependable fords. During the trip to Connecticut the Path crosses the Blackstone River, that crossing was known as the North Bridge and the Quinebaug River crossing was known as the South Bridge, both Northbridge and Southbridge were named after those well-known landmark locations.
Massachusetts
The Path led west along the north bank of the
Connecticut
The Old Connecticut path entered Connecticut at the praying town of Maanexit, now Thompson, and continued into Woodstock.[7] Past Woodstock, the path crossed Eastford, Ashford and Willington. Modern travelers can walk along portions of the path in both of those towns in places such as the Nipmuck Trail and the Fenton-Ruby Park.[8][9] Continuing westward, the trail crosses Tolland, Vernon, and a small corner of Manchester, before ending at the Connecticut River.
Notes
- ^ Ron McAdow, "The Old Connecticut Path"
- ^ By collating early maps, documents and town histories with on-the-ground exploration, Harral Ayres established the route of the Old Connecticut Path and its byways, in The Great Trail of New England (Boston: Meador) 1940
- ^ Route 126.
- ^ Route 20 in Wayland retains the name as "Boston Post Road".
- ^ The route of the Bay Path has been confused with the Old Connecticut Path, as by Archer Butler Hulbert, Indian Thoroughfares 1902:74, who mistakenly traces it through Marlborough to Albany, New York.
- ^ Alfred Sereno Hudson, The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889 1889:5f.
- ^ Katharine Mixer Abbott, Old Paths and Legends of New England: Saunterings Over Historic Roads, 1903:274 note 2.
- ^ "ASHFORD - Old Connecticut Path".
- ^ "WILLINGTON - Old Connecticut Path".