The greatest New England river, the Connecticut, was first explored by
the redoubtable Dutch navigator, Captain Adraien Blok. When he made
his memorable voyage of discovery from New Amsterdam along Long Island
Sound, Blok ascended the Connecticut to Enfield Falls. Its source is
in the highlands of northern New Hampshire upon the Canadian boundary,
at an elevation of twenty-five hundred feet, and it flows four hundred
and fifty miles southward to the Sound. Its Indian title was
Quonektakat, or "the long tidal river," from which the name has been
derived. It is noted for beautiful scenery and has many cataracts, the
chief being Olcott Falls, at Wilder in Vermont, South Hadley in
Massachusetts, and Enfield in Connecticut. The soils of its valley are
extremely fertile, making a garden-spot in the otherwise generally
sterile New England, the most luxuriant crop being the tobacco-plant,
known as "Connecticut seed-leaf," used largely for cigar-wrappers, and
often yielding two thousand pounds to the acre. Steamboats navigate
the river to Hartford, about fifty miles from the Sound. The blazing
red beacon of the Cornfield Point Lightship is the outer guide for the
mariner entering its mouth, while the white lights of Saybrook guard
the inner channel. The lower Connecticut flows through a region of
farms, enriched by copious dressings of manures made from the fish
caught in the stream, and it passes picturesque shores and pleasant
villages in the domain of Haddam, an extensive tract which the Indians
originally sold to Hartford people for thirty coats.
Middletown, the "Forest City," at a great bend in the lower river, has
many mills making pumps, tapes, plated wares, webbing and
sewing-machines, its shaded streets leading up the hill-slopes,
bordering the water, that have in them valuable quarries of rich brown
Portland stone. The county Court-house of Middletown is a quaint
little miniature of the Parthenon. The Wesleyan Methodist College,
having three hundred students, is located here, the chief buildings
being the Memorial and Judd Halls, built of the native Portland stone,
the latter the gift of Orange Judd. The large buildings of the
Connecticut Insane Hospital, also of Portland stone, overlook the
river from a high hill southeast of the city, and are in a spacious
park. To the northward of Middletown, level green and exceedingly
fertile meadows adjoin the river, their product being the noted onion
crops of Wethersfield, which permeate the whole country. This was the
earliest Connecticut settlement in 1635, and here in the next year
convened the first Connecticut Legislature to make the arrangements
for the war against the Pequots which annihilated that tribe. In one
of its old mansions General Washington had his headquarters, where, in
conjunction with the French officers, the plans were prepared for the
campaign closing the Revolution by the victory at Yorktown.
To the westward of the river are the famous "Blue Hills of
Southington," the most elevated portion of the State of Connecticut,
and nestling under their shadow is Meriden, the hills rising high
above its western and northern verge, in the West Peak and Mount
Lamentation. Here are gathered over thirty thousand people in an
active factory town, the neat wooden dwellings of the operatives
forming the nucleus of the city adjacent to the extensive mills, and
having as a surrounding galaxy the attractive villas of their owners,
scattered in pleasant places upon the steep adjacent hills. They are
industrious iron and steel, bronze, brass and tin workers, and the
Meriden Britannia and electro-plated silver wares are famous
everywhere. The Meriden Britannia Company has enormous mills, and is
the greatest establishment of its kind in the world. Meriden and
Berlin, a short distance northward, have long been the headquarters of
the peripatetic Connecticut tin-pedler, who goes forth laden with all
kinds of pots and pans, and other bright and useful utensils, to
wander over the land, and charm the country folk with his attractive
bargains. Berlin began in the eighteenth century the first American
manufacture of tinware. There are scores of villages about, cast
almost in the same mould. Each has the same beautiful central Public
Green, the charm of the New England village, shaded by rows of stately
elms; the tall-spired churches; the village graveyard, usually on a
gently-sloping hillside, with the lines of older white gravestones,
supplemented in the modern interments by more elaborate monuments; the
attractive wooden houses nestling amid abundant foliage, and
surrounded by gardens and flower-beds, that are the homes of the
people, and the huge factories giving them employment. Some of these
villages are larger than others, thus covering more space, but
excepting in size, all are substantially alike.