ROOTS-L Archives

From: Paige Redd <>
Subject: Griswold
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 19:34:15 -0400

Found this link to the Griswold Family Association:
http://griswoldfamily.org/gfameet.html

The following is from a Nov. 1997 article in The Courant, I think it's a
real estate magazine, promoting a community in Connecticut called
Griswoldville:

Jacob Griswold founded the settlement at a place called
``Two
Stone'' in 1680. He built a fulling mill on Highland
Street for the
manufacture of woolen goods. The Griswold family carried
on their
business until about 1840, when the Bailey & Wolcott Co.
moved in
and began making hand-forged hammers and axes. By the
1800s,
there were a number of working mills in Griswoldville,
including a
grist mill, a wool mill, a mill where women's stockings
were made, and
a mattress company.

Today, the mills are gone, and dairy farms that once
dotted the area
have been replaced by neighborhoods of houses on lots of
less than
an acre. But Griswoldville has kept its rural character
and is home to
one of the finest golf clubs in the state, the
Wethersfield Country
Club, former home of the Greater Hartford Open.

Wethersfield lies just south of Hartford on the west bank
of the
Connecticut River. Newington is directly west of
Wethersfield, and
Rocky Hill is the next town to the south.

I-91 runs north and south through the Great Meadows
between Old
wethersfield and the river. Routes 5 and 15 flow from
I-91 just north
of town to the Berlin Turnpike. State highways 175 and
287 run east
and west through Wethersfield. Route 3 exits the Putnam
Bridge
from Glastonbury and runs south through Rocky Hill.

Griswoldville lies in the south end of town between
Prospect Street
and the Rocky Hill town line. The area is primarily
residential apart
from the Wethersfield Country Club, Wethersfield Police
Lt. John
Salvatore said.


Until about 1720, there were more people living in
Wethersfield than
in Hartford. Wethersfield was the port for Hartford,
where sand
bars at the time made maneuvering sailing ships
difficult, Lasher said.

But a February thaw in the early 1700s sent giant blocks
of ice
downstream that cut a new path for the Connecticut River,
which
previously flowed through Wethersfield Cove at the north
end of Old
Wethersfield, he said.

After that, shipbuilding was no longer big business for
the town.
Historically, agriculture remained Wethersfield's primary
business,
Wethersfield's Town Planner Stuart Popper said.

Seed companies started business in town, taking advantage
of the
rich soil in Wethersfield's flood plain. Comstock Ferre &
Co. was
founded in 1820 and Hart Seed Co. in 1892. Both companies
are still
in business today, Popper said.

Wethersfield's largest employers now are the state of
Connecticut,

the town of Wethersfield and Northeast Utilities, he
said.
The Nierendorf's house, built in 1872, is the same age as
the
Griswoldville Chapel, which is celebrating its 125th
anniversary.

And finally, there is another community called Griswoldville, this one
in Twiggs Co., Georgia, where a famous battle occurred on November 22,
1864 during the War Between the States (Yankees won, 712 casualties
total), oddly enough it is called the "Battle of Griswoldville".

Don't know if you can use any of this information, but I just thought
I'd send it to you anyway. You just NEVER know.

This thread:

• Griswold by Paige Redd <>

  • Griswold by comaward/sscaribbean <>