Windsor, Connecticut

Windsor, Connecticut, named after the Berkshire residence of the English royal family, was one of Connecticut’s three earliest settlements, the other two being Hartford and Wethersfield. It was here that the first Stiles emigrants from England to America disembarked from their ship, the Christian of London. The original town was a wide expanse of land comprising the present towns of Windsor, Windsor Locks, Granby, Simsbury, East Windsor, South Windsor, Ellington, and parts of Suffield, Bloomfield and Vernon.

The early years were difficult ones for the settlers of this new village. During the first winter, they were so bound in deep snow and so completely isolated by the frozen river that it is surprising that the settlers survived. Nevertheless, from this nearly impossible beginning, the village grew and prospered in limited colonial fashion. By 1647, the town had both a church and a school and the following year a ferry was being operated on the river.

 

 

 

Side view of the Windsor Historical Society.
Emphasizes the portion of the original structure that once served as a residence for the Second Stiles Historian, Henry Reed Stiles.

 

Early Windsor bordered the west bank of the Connecticut River. The river valley was, at that time, covered with primeval hardwood forests interspersed with pines, cedars and fruit trees, all tangled in matted vines. The land was a plain of river-bottom soil, well suited when cleared to grazing and farming. The settlers rapidly cleared land, and since 1640 Windsor has been known as a tobacco town. The early town was also well located for trade as it was on a navigable river, and not far from Mystic Harbor, the home of daring mariners and fishermen. (During the Revolutionary War years, Mystic was feared by the British as “a cursed little hornet’s nest”.) Windsor has been involved in significant history all through the years. In 1760, Benjamin Franklin’s newly established mail coach line went through the village on its run from Philadelphia to Boston – a trip requiring six days.

A citizen of Windsor, Sergeant Daniel Bissell, was one of three Connecticut men to receive the Purple Heart during the Revolutionary War. He was charged with desertion while he was serving with Benedict Arnold’s regiment, but returned from this absence with valuable information for General Washington. Bissell became a colonial hero and was decorated.

The invention of the Spencer repeating rifle by Christopher Minor Spencer is part of the town’s history. This rifle was used by the Northern Army during the Civil War. With reference to this rifle, some Confederate soldier said, “The Yanks load on Sunday for the rest of the week!” Windsor has had, for almost one and one half centuries, an important brick industry, especially notable since many of the Yale University buildings at New Haven were constructed with these bricks.

A citizen of Windsor, Dr. Horace C. Hayden, founded the first dental school in America at Johns Hopkins University. He also founded the American Society of Dental Surgeons.

Many other early citizens of Windsor attained historical prominence. Among them was Oliver Ellsworth, third Chief Justice of the United States and, in 1799, Envoy Extraordinary to Paris where he successfully negotiated a treaty with Napoleon. Oliver Ellsworth was the person who built a beautiful house on Francis Stiles’ original colonial land grant which adjoins the land grant of our ancestor, John Stiles. The Ellsworth house, called Elmwood, has been preserved and in it may be seen the Shepherd Lad tapestry which Napoleon presented to Ellsworth on the occasion of the treaty negotiation.

Today Windsor retains much of its old world charm. The plan of the town conforms to the early New England pattern of houses clustered around a green. On this green stands a monument in memory of Windsor’s earliest settlers. Upon this monument is inscribed the name of our first American ancestor, John, with those of his brothers, Francis, Thomas, and Henry. Old houses, well preserved, demonstrate the typical architectural trends of three centuries. Even though most of the descendants of the early settlers have moved on to new frontiers, Windsor’s air of historical enchantment lingers.

 

 

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