The Toll of War Brings Peace

While no battles were fought on Farmington soil, years of war left the town exhausted. At a town meeting in 1782, as the war drew to a close, a resolution described the townspeople’s mood as “a mixed sensation of pleasure and pain,” the Courant reported. The declaration spoke of the “sufferings and dull aches of the people” and stated that “the loss of those patriots and heroes, who have died in their country’s cause, fill us with the most-felt afflictions and sorrow.”

But the resolution also mentioned the “glorious success” of the new nation, and not longer after, a town meeting in 1783 referred to the town’s “sweet repose and domestic enjoyment.”