Sterling, Windham County, Connecticut History
THE township of Sterling occupies the southeast corner of the county,
being bounded on the north by Killingly, east by Rhode Island, south by
Voluntown (formerly a town of Windham county, but recently transferred to
New London county), and west by Plainfield. The town is nine miles long
from north to south, and has an average width of three miles. It is
centrally distant -from Hartford 49 miles and from New Haven 73 miles. It
contains an area of twenty-seven square miles. Much of the land is hilly
or swampy. The town is well drained by the Quanduck and Cedar Swamp
branches of Moosup river. It contains valuable building stones, which are
quarried to some extent. Sterling hill, in the western part, is the
original settlement, and occupies an eminence, furnishing a delightful
view of the surrounding country. 'The town is crossed near the center by
the Providence Division of the N. Y. & N. E. railroad. Large quantities of
railroad ties are cut from the woods of the town. Farming and
manufacturing form the industrial interests of the town. Its population at
different periods has been In 1800, 908; in 1840, 1,099; 1870, 1,022;
1880, 957. The grand list of the town in 1800 was $20,873; in 1847,
$11,791; in 1857, $13,447; and 1887, $259,263. The number of children
between the ages of four and sixteen in 1858 was 280; in 1881, 227; and in
1887, 197. The post 'offices of Sterling, Oneco, Ekonk and North Sterling
are in this town.
In October, 1696, Lieutenant Thomas Leffingwell, of Norwich, and Sergeant
John Frink, of Stonington, moved the general court, "that they, with the
rest of the English volunteers in former wars, might have a plantation
granted to them." A tract of land six miles square was granted in answer
to this request, "to be taken up out of some of the conquered land," its
bounds to be prescribed and settlement regulated by persons appointed by
the court. The volunteers sent "out upon the discovery " of a suitable
tract, found their choice very limited. Major Fitch, the Winthrops and
others had already appropriated the greater part of the conquered lands,
and the only available tract remaining within Connecticut limits was a
strip bordering on Rhode Island, a few miles east of Norwich, and upon
reporting this " discovery " to the general court, Captain Samuel Mason,
Mr. John Gallop, and Lieutenant James Avery were appointed a committee to
view the said tract, and to consider whether it he suitable for
entertainment of a body of people that may be able comfortably to carry on
plantation work, or what addition of land may be necessary to accommodate
a body of people for comfortable subsistence in a plantation way." After
taking three years for viewing and considering, the committee reported
favorably, and in October, 1700, Lieutenant Leffingwell, Richard Bushnell,
Isaac- Wheeler, Caleb Fobes, Samuel Bliss, Joseph Morgan and Manasseh
Minor moved for its confirmation to the volunteers, which was granted, "so
far as it concur with the former act of the General Assembly, provided it
bring not the Colony into any inconvenience " or, as afterward expressed,
" do not prejudice any former grant of the court." A large part of the
tract thus granted is now comprised in the town of Voluntown. Its original
bounds were nearly identical with those of the present township, save that
eastward it extended to Pawcatuck river.
Little now can be learned of the primitive condition of this region. It
was a waste, barren frontier, overrun by various tribes of Indians, and
after the Narragansett war, claimed by the Mohegans. Massashowitt, sachem
of Quinebaug, also claimed rights in it. No Indians are believed to have
occupied it after the war, nor were any white inhabitants found on it when
made over to the volunteers.
Some years passed before the division was completed. After the disputed
Mohegan claim was settled a survey of the land was made in 1705. This land
extended from the north bounds of Stonington northward to the Whetstone
country, being a tract some twenty miles long, and from three to six miles
in width. Its original quantity was diminished somewhat by the
encroachment of the Rhode Island line, but after that had been established
the tract was substantially the same as that now occupied by the towns of
Voluntown and Sterling. One hundred and sixty persons had enrolled
themselves as. desirous of sharing in the benefit of this grant, and the
land was distributed among them by a drawing made April 6th, 1706. These
drawers of lots were residents of New London, Norwich, Stonington,
Windham, Plainfield and other neighboring towns. The list comprised not
only officers and soldiers, but ministers, chaplains and many who had
served the colony in civil capacity as well as military, during the war.
Samuel Fish was probably the first settler on this tract, but at what
point his settlement had been made (it being already there), we are not
informed. Very few of the "volunteers" took personal possession of their
allotments. Some of the proprietors sold out their rights at an early
date, receiving five, six, eight, eleven and twelve pounds for an
allotment. Others retained their shares and rented out farms on them
whenever practicable. These first divisions were made in the southern part
of the tract surveyed and most, if not all of the first land divisions and
operations were probably within the limits of the present town of
Voluntown. Northward lay the vacant land east of Plainfield. This land was
petitioned for both by Plainfield and Voluntown. Some few had already
obtained possession of lands here and had made improvements upon them.
Reverend Mr. Coit, of Plainfield, had received a grant of three hundred
acres north of Egunk hill, and he conveyed it to Francis Smith and Miles
Jordan. Smith soon put up a mill and opened his house for the
accommodation of travelers. Smith and Jordan, in 1714, erected a bridge
over the river there, and received in payment 150 acres of land on the
Providence road. This convenient road and pleasant locality soon attracted
other settlers-John Smith, Ebenezer and Thomas Dow, Robert and John Parke,
Robert Williams, Nathaniel French and others. In May, 1719, this vacant
country was annexed to Voluntown, by act of the assembly, a strip one mile
in width across the north end being reserved as public land. The settlers
who were established in the vacant land had their purchases confirmed to
them by the assembly, in October, 1719, on condition that each should
"have a tenantable house and settle themselves within the space of three
years and continue to live there three years after such settlement, upon
the forfeiture of said purchase."
In May, 1721, the people inhabiting this territory were invested with town
privileges, in the exercise of which they proceeded to lay taxes for the
support of a minister and building a meeting house. The town government of
Voluntown was organized June 20th, 1721. Thirty-seven persons were then
admitted inhabitants. The town -,-,,as thus eighteen or twenty miles long
and three or four miles wide. The question of location of a meeting house
was a perplexing one, but it was finally decided by actual measurement,
and placing it in the geographical cen-ter of the town, or about a quarter
of a mile therefrom, the central point falling on an inconvenient spot.
The first pastor settled by the town was Reverend Samuel Dorrance, a
Scotch Presbyterian lately arrived from Ireland, who was installed
December 12th, 1723. A church had been organized October 15th, 1723. This
church adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith and was the first and
for a long time the only Presbyterian church in Connecticut. The first
members of the church were Samuel Dorrance, Robert Gordon, Thomas Cole,
John Casson, John Campbell, Robert Campbell, Samuel Campbell, John Gordon,
Alexander Gordon, Ebenezer Dow, John Keigwin, William Hamilton, Robert
Hopkins, John Smith, Daniel Dill, Thomas Welch, Jacob Bacon, Daniel Cass,
John Dorrance, George Dorrance, Samuel Church, Jr., John Dorrance, Jr.,
Nathaniel Deane, Vincent Patterson, Robert Miller. Patrick Parke, Samuel
Church, Adam Kasson, William Kasson, David Hopkins, Charles Campbell,
Nathaniel French, John Gibson, James Hopkins, John and Robert Parke,
William Rogers and John Gallup.
In 1724 John Gallup had liberty to build a dam and saw mill "where he hath
begun on ye stream that runs out of Monhungonnuck Pond," and Robert Parke
was allowed a similar privilege on the Moosup. The landed interests of the
town were still managed by the proprietors, and their meetings were held
at New London, Norwich and Stonington. This subjected the resident
proprietors to much inconvenience and was afterward corrected by allowing
a part at least of the business concerning lands to be done in the town.
In May, 1726, Voluntown organized its first military company, with John
Gallup, for captain; Robert Parke, for lieutenant; and Francis Deane, for
ensign. The progress of the town had been greatly retarded, and at that
date it was much behind its contemporaries, having no schools nor even a
meeting house, and but few roads laid out. A long continued and obstinate
contest over the site of the meeting house disturbed the town and
prevented the erection of the building. Then again, boundary contests with
the adjoining towns disturbed the peace of the town. Added to these
disturbing. forces from without and within was the fact that its
population, though quite large, was motley and disorderly, made up of
substantial settlers from adjacent townships, sturdy Scotch Presbyterians
and lawless Rhode Island borderers. So great was the popular agitation and
discontent that at one time the town voted " that it desired that the
patent granted to Voluntown might be un-acted and made void, and that the
town be divided by an east and west line into north and south ends, and
each end to make and maintain their own bridges and highways." Attempts to
go on with the building of the meeting house in this disturbed condition
of affairs were quite suspended. A frame had been set up on Egunk, now
Sterling hill, the site chosen and contended for by a large faction, and
there it stood for years without covering. In 1729, however, the agitation
was so far subsided that a meeting house was begun upon the site
originally designated by the town, and this was completed in the course of
two or three years.
In 1740 a committee was appointed to lay out the undivided lands belonging
to the proprietors. In 1739 the strip of public land which had been
reserved, a mile in width, at the north end of the town, was annexed to
this town by an act of the assembly. Up to this time no freemen had yet
been sworn, no " country taxes " paid, and no representatives sent to the
general assembly. The town now settled down to a more complete fulfillment
of the privileges and responsibilities of corporate existence. But the
division of land ordered in 1740 was delayed till 1747, when all previous
committees being dismissed, Humphrey Avery, Charles Campbell, Robert
Dixon, Samuel Gordon and John Wylie, Jr., were appointed to divide the
common lots to each proprietor or his heirs, remeasure and rebound old
lots, and lay out cedar swamps, which were satisfactorily accomplished.
The cedar and pine swamps, said to be the best in the county, were laid
out and divided. The lot on which the meeting house stood, and the burial
place adjoining, were sequestered for the use of the inhabitants of the
town and their successors. Several of the original lots had not been taken
up by those to whom they had been granted.
In this condition Voluntown remained for many years, a greater part of the
inhabitants averse to the established church and yet compelled to pay
rates for the support of its ministry. Attempts were made by residents of
each end of the town to procure distinct society privileges. A petition
presented to the assembly in 1762 sets forth the situation in the
following language:
" That there was but one society in Voluntown, twenty miles long and four
or five wide; list in 1761, £10,786; inhabitants settled at each end and
dispersed in almost every part, about one hundred and eighty families,
some dwelling seven, some nine and, ten miles from meeting house; trouble
of transporting ourselves and families very great and heavy; town
conveniently situated for division; such burden of travel hardly to be
found in any other town-and prayed for division."
In 1772 fifty-four persons north of Moosup river, including John, James
and George Dorrance, Robert, Thomas and James Dixon, Robert Montgomery,
John Coles, John Gaston, Mark and David Eames, some of them six, seven,
eight and nine miles from Voluntown meeting house, and greatly impeded by
bad roads and traveling, received liberty from the assembly to organize as
a distinct society or join in worship with Killingly. A number of these
northern residents consequently united with the church in South Killingly,
and after some years organized as a distinct society.
Sterling obtained town privileges without the customary struggle. The
inconvenience arising from the peculiar elongation of ancient Voluntown
was abundantly manifest, and a proposition, April 205th, 1793, to divide
into two towns met immediate acceptance. The resolve incorporating the new
town was passed May, 1794, as follows:
"Resolved by this Assembly, that all that part of the ancient town of
Voluntown, within the following bounds, beginning at the northwest corner
of said ancient town of Voluntown, at the south line of Killingly; thence
running southerly on the east side of Plainfield until it comes to the
southeast corner of Plainfield; thence east ten degrees south to the
division line between this state and the state of Rhode Island; thence by
said state line to the southeast corner of Killingly; thence westerly on
the line of Killingly to the first mentioned bounds, be, and the same is
hereby, incorporated into a distinct town by the name of `Sterling,' and
shall be, and remain in, and of the County of Windham."
The first town meeting was held at the house of Robert Dixon, Esq., on
Sterling hill, June 9th, 1794. Benjamin Dow was elected town clerk and
treasurer; Captain John Wylie and Asa Montgomery, George Matteson, Anthony
Brown and Lemuel Dorrance, selectmen; Captain Thomas Gordon, constable and
collector; Noah Cole, James Dorrance, Jr., Nathaniel Gallup, Dixon Hall,
fence viewers; Nathaniel Gallup, grand juryman; John Hill, Nathaniel
Burlingame, Matthias Frink, tithingmen. Benjamin Dow, Lemuel Dorrance and
John Wylie were appointed a committee to make division of all the
corporate property that did belong to Voluntown; also, to settle the line
with Voluntown gentlemen and make division of the poor. Sheep and swine
were allowed liberty " to go on the common." The dwelling house of Robert
Dixon was selected as the place for holding town meetings until the town
saw cause to make other arrangements. Nearly a hundred inhabitants were
soon admitted as freemen. The original Voluntown families-Dixon, Dorrance,
Dow, Douglas, Cole, Smith, Gaston, Gordon, Gallup, French, Frink,
Montgomery, Wylie-were still represented. Patten, Perkins, Vaughan, Young,
Bailey, Burgess, Burlingame, Hall, Mason, and other later residents,
appeared among the inhabitants. The name of the town was given by a
temporary resident, Doctor John Sterling, who promised a public library in
return for the honor.
Source: History of Windham County, Connecticut,
Bayles, Richard M.; New York: W.W. Preston, 1889
Back to: Windham County, Connecticut
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