Farmington’s history begins in the meadows by the Farmington River — fertile land that the Native Americans called Tunxis Sepus (“at the bend of the little river”). The Tunxis Indians, …

“Bend of the Pequabuck,” by Robert Brandegee, 1898.  Courtesy of the Farmington Village Green and Library Association (FVGLA). In 1640, a group of about a dozen English settlers from Hartford, …

The land was incorporated in 1645 as the town of Farmington by an act of the Connecticut General Assembly. In 1650, a deed was executed confirming the original sale, and …

The settlers formed a church congregation in 1652, and the first services were held in townspeople’s homes. By 1666, the Congregational Church had built a meetinghouse, which was the center …

  In 1673, a gristmill was constructed by the Farmington River, and then a fulling mill for processing homespun wool.  The building is now owned by Miss Porter’s School.  

We call it “Memento Mori,” that tree-shaded hill of grave markers visible behind a dark picket fence and Egyptian Revival gate with its papyrus columns. Thousands pass it daily in their …

The first school in Farmington was most likely established about the same time as the church. Puritan codes required one teacher for every settlement of fifty households —  so children …

Ancient Highways Town of Farmington Map showing location of ancient highways and land divisions. Drawn by E. F. Reuber in 1951

In 1704, news of the French and Indian massacre of English colonists in Deerfield, Mass., led Farmington townspeople to fortify seven houses. After rumors of an Indian attack from Canada, …

  The first homes of the settlers in Farmington were rough-hewn log huts, but as the town became more established the huts gave way to wooden frame houses. A rare surviving …

During the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, feelings of patriotism were strongly felt in town. In 1770, Farmington took action against British taxes on imports by voting to …

The present Congregational Church, known for its graceful spire, was built in 1771. The spire, which can be seen above the treetops for miles around, has become a symbol of …

While the town began as a self-reliant farming community in the peaceful Farmington River Valley, its history has always been interwoven with that of the nation. In the town’s Colonial years, …

In 1774, Farmington’s population was the tenth largest in the colonies, after Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Charlestown, Salem, Baltimore, New Haven and Norwich. The town claimed the third largest …

The town was one of the first in the Colonies to respond to the British blockade of Boston harbor in 1774. A crowd of 1,000 gathered in Farmington for the …

On April 19, 1775, British and American soldiers exchanged fire in Lexington and Concord, Mass., and the next day Fisher Gay is said to have closed his store in Farmington …

After the British evacuated Boston in March 1776, the main route from Newport and Hartford to the highlands above New York City was through Farmington. Troops, equipment, and provisions passed …

Not all town residents rallied to the cause of the Revolution. A few dared to take a stand as Loyalists, or Tories. As Christopher Bickford wrote in Farmington in Connecticut, the Tories …

In October 1777, General Horatio Gates defeated British General John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga, N.Y., a turning point in the war. Some of Burgoyne’s officers were held as …

Washington passed through Farmington at least six times during the war. In 1780 he traveled through the town on the way to Hartford, where he met Rochambeau. On his return, …

With the American victory at Saratoga, France joined the war against the British. Twice during the war, the commander of the French army, the Comte de Rochambeau, passed through Farmington …

Soon after the war, in August 1785, six young men organized a brief subscription library. No records remain, but some books were passed onto the new 1795 library of the …

The small white cottage at 138 Main Street, home to the Farmington Historical Society, and its neighbor at 140 Main Street, are time travelers in a sense — unique 18th-century …

  The Old Stone Schoolhouse, at Red Oak Hill and Coppermine roads, was a schoolhouse  from 1790 to 1872. From 1875 to 1956, it was used as a chapel and community …

Hidden deep in the second-growth hardwood forest of Rattlesnake Mountain is an inconspicuous flat ledge of traprock. On it are carved 66 names of long-ago Farmington residents. This is Farmington …

Two early Farmington artists were actually engravers: Joel Allen (1755–1825) and Martin Bull (1744–1825). Allen engraved the first Amer ican book on musical harmony, and Bull did the Farmington Library’s …

Here we must acknowledge a person who profoundly influenced the cultural life of Farmington, and helped develop a small-town intelligentsia. Sarah Porter (1813–1900), daughter of the long-serving pastor Noah Porter …

During the same period, another library, called the Village Library, was formed. A group of young men met on Saturdays under the church horse sheds (built for those who traveled …

      In 1822 the Farmington Canal Company was chartered to build the waterway from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts. Construction on the canal, which was inspired by the …

Photo by Brooke Martin Farmington’s Riverside Cemetery lies above and beside the banks of the Farmington River, a tranquil oasis from the traffic on nearby streets. Those who come to …

A brown sandstone monument, erected in 1840 at Riverside Cemetery, honors the Tunxis tribe.  Inscribed on it are the lines of Hartford poet Lydia Huntley Sigourney: Chieftains of a vanished race, …

Beginning in the late 1700s, many slaves sought freedom by fleeing north to “free” states and Canada. Independent groups of abolitionist sympathizers together formed a network of secret routes and …

From March through November 1841, Farmington was home to the African Mendi captives who had rebelled and overtaken the slave-ship, La Amistad. The 53 captives, mostly Mendi from what is now Sierra …

Farmington River, Farmington, Connecticut by James McDougal Hart   The Civil War brought change to American aesthetics, and demand for art of a different style – perhaps to help heal …

Theodate Pope Riddle was an American architect. She was one of the first American women architects as well as a survivor of the Lusitania. A graduate of Miss Porter’s School, …

Other nineteenth-century landscapists worked in Farmington. Aaron Draper Shattuck (1832–1928) painted “Farmington River and Shore Foliage” in 1879. Daniel F. Wentworth (1850–1934) painted the Grist Mill in 1884, Allen Butler …

Photo by Brooke Martin

Robert Brandegee (1849–1922) was hired by Sarah Porter in 1880 and succeeded Tuthill as art teacher at the school. He grew up in nearby Berlin, studied at E. L. Hart’s …

  Eight years before the Town Hall was built, Julia Brandegee, the younger sister of Sarah Brandegee Barney (a Miss Porter’s School graduate) took a precedent-breaking step. She opened her …

When the new Town Hall was built in 1890 on Main Street (where the fire station is now), Julia Brandegee’s Tunxis Free Library merged with the Farmington Library Co. from …

Painting by Robert Brandegee -Learn more about Farmington Artists and Their Times – Giverny in Connecticut

This building formerly “Deming’s” which housed the Amistad captives in 1841, is now the Post Office and a general store.  It is later moved to Mill Lane and is currently …

In 1906, “Farmington, Connecticut, The Village of Beautiful Homes” was published by Arthur L. Brandegee and Eddy R. Smith, celebrating the history and beauty of the community, with “Photographic reproductions, …

Herbert Knox Smith, son of a former pastor of First Church in Farmington, graduated from Yale in 1891. He earned his law degree from Yale in 1895 and was admitted …

In August 1955, two separate hurricanes, Connie and Diane, inundated Connecticut with heavy rainfall and unleashed a devastating flood, the worst natural disaster in the state’s recorded history.  Thirteen Farmington …

The creation of the Farmington Quilt was an extraordinary community project involving 120 volunteers who donated their time and talent over a two-year period. Three quilts were made; two were …

The Connecticut Freedom Trail was authorized in 1995 by an act of the Connecticut General Assembly. Farmington sites on the trail include Amistad sites and Underground Railroad safe houses where fugitive slaves were hidden by abolitionists.

by Irene Van   Another year of “preserving the town’s history and educating the public about its significance” was celebrated at the Farmington Historical Society’s New Year’s Gala on Sunday, …