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''[[United States|United States]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png|go to]] [[United States Migration Internal|Migration]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png|go to]] [[US Migration Trails and Roads|Trails and Roads]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[Massachusetts]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png|go to]] [[Connecticut]]'' [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] '''Old Connecticut Path'''
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Did an ancestor travel the '''Old Connecticut Path''' of Massachusetts and Connecticut? Learn about this settler migration route, its transportation history, and find related genealogy sources.<br>[[Image:{{OConnPathmap}}]]__TOC__
Did an ancestor travel the '''Old Connecticut Path''' of Massachusetts and Connecticut? Learn about this settler migration route, its transportation history, and find related genealogy sources.  


=== History  ===
=== Old Connecticut Path History  ===


The '''Old Connecticut Path''' was created by Native Americans in antiquity.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia (accessed 28 October 2014).</ref> It originally went about 94 miles (151 kilometers) from '''[[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]''' to '''[[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]]''' in [[Massachusetts Genealogy Guide|Massachusetts]]<ref>Frederic J. Wood, ''The Turnpikes of New England and the Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland'' (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1919), 25. [https://archive.org/details/turnpikesofnewen00woodrich Internet Archive version online].</ref>, and then another 26 miles (42 kilometers) south to '''[[Hartford, Connecticut]]'''. It was the first eastern North American trail that led west from settlements on the Atlantic seacoast into the interior of America (Connecticut River Valley).<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path].</ref> The [[Connecticut River]] itself was also an important transportation route which attracted early settlers. Starting in the 1650s the Old Connecticut Path route was used as the '''''upper fork of the [[Boston Post Road]]''''' to New York City<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Post_Road Boston Post Road] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia (accessed 28 October 2014).</ref>, also known as the '''''[[King's Highway]]''''' which eventually extended as far south as Charleston, South Carolina. In the 1760s stagecoaches began to traverse these roads carrying regular mail and passengers. Inns for stagecoach passengers usually were established near the time of American Revolution. Nevertheless, travel between colonial towns was more often by sea than it was over land until just before the American Revolution.<ref>Wood, 25.</ref>  
[[Image:New England Migration Routes.png|right|400px|New England Migration Routes.png]]The '''Old Connecticut Path''' was created by Native Americans in antiquity. &nbsp;It was the first North American trail that led west from settlements on the Atlantic seacoast into the interior of America.<br><br>  


'''Earliest settlers'''. The Old Connecticut Path was used by members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as 1630. In those first years Indians also carried corn from the Connecticut River Valley over the path to help supply starving colonists in Boston.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path].</ref> The route continued to attract settlements in the interior of Massachusetts and Connecticut because it provided access to markets for settler goods and services.  
The Path was used by members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as 1630. It continued to be used as settlements in Connecticut and other interior locations were settled.  


'''Variations'''. Over time the route was shortened and straightened. A more direct road from Boston to Hartford (which skipped Springfield) also came to be called the '''Old Connecticut Path''', and also become the middle fork of the [[Boston Post Road]].<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path].</ref> <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Post_Road Boston Post Road].</ref>  
Over the years, settlements like Cambridge, Watertown, Waltham and Weston were established along the path as it winds its way toward South Framingham, Hopkinton, Grafton and westward to Westborough and Woodstock, Connecticut. <ref>Wikipedia - Old Connecticut Path[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path]</ref> <ref>Sudbury Valley Trustees - Old Connecticut Path[http://www.sudburyvalleytrustees.org/node/215]</ref> <ref>Frederic J. Wood, ''The Turnpikes of New England and the Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland'' (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1919), 25. [https://archive.org/details/turnpikesofnewen00woodrich Internet Archive version online].</ref>  


'''Toll roads'''. Massachusetts and Connecticut developed turnpike (toll) systems for wagon roads in the early 1800s including part of the route from Boston to Springfield (Palmer to Warren "Massachusetts 1st Turnpike").<ref>Wood, map between 56 and 57, and 63-64.</ref> Likewise, most of the more direct Boston to Hartford route became a turnpike (Hartford and Dedham,<ref>Wood, map between 56 and 57, and 138-40.</ref> Center,<ref>Wood, map between 330 and 331, and 396.</ref> and Hartford Tolland,<ref>Wood, map between 330 and 331, and 366-67.</ref> turnpikes). Most of these early pathways continue as roads today. Modern freeways usually parallel the older road systems.
'''Connecting Routes''' Over time the Old Connecticut Path connected with half a dozen other migration routes:  
 
'''Decline'''. However, the use of early roads and turnpikes for moving settlers waned with the introduction of railroads. Settlers could travel faster, less expensively, and safer on railroads than on wagon roads. So, as railroads entered an area, the wagon-road traffic in that area declined. The first railroads in Massachusetts and Connecticut were built in the late 1830s. A rail line from Providence, Rhode Island reached Hartford, Connecticut and New York City about 1847.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_and_New_England_Railroad#West_from_Providence:_1846-1863 New York and New England Railroad] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'' (accessed 28 October 2014).</ref>
 
=== Route  ===
 
Settlers who traveled the '''Old Connecticut Path''' from '''[[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]''' to '''[[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]]''' to '''[[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]]''' passed through these places:<ref>[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_Post_Road_map.png File:Boston Post Road map.png] at ''Wikimedia Commons'' (accessed 28 October 2014).</ref>
 
*[[Suffolk County, Massachusetts]]
 
:*[[Boston, Massachusetts|'''Boston''']]
 
*[[Middlesex County, Massachusetts]]
 
:*[[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]]
:*[[Watertown, Massachusetts|Watertown]]
:*[[Waltham, Massachusetts|Waltham]]
:*[[Weston, Massachusetts|Weston]]
:*[[Wayland, Massachusetts|Wayland]]
:*[[Sudbury, Massachusetts|Sudbury]]
:*[[Marlborough, Massachusetts|Marlborough]]
 
*[[Worcester County, Massachusetts]]
 
:*[[Northborough, Massachusetts|Northborough]]
:*[[Shrewsbury, Massachusetts|Shrewsbury]]
:*[[Worcester, Massachusetts|Worcester]]
:*[[Leicester, Massachusetts|Leicester]]
:*[[Spencer, Massachusetts|Spencer]]
:*[[East Brookfield, Massachusetts|East Brookfield]]
:*[[Brookfield, Massachusetts|Brookfield]]
:*[[West Brookfield, Massachusetts|West Brookfield]]
:*[[Warren, Massachusetts|Warren]] (Western)
 
*[[Hampden County, Massachusetts]]
 
:*[[Palmer, Massachusetts|Palmer]]
:*[[Wilbraham, Massachusetts|Wilbraham]]
:*[[Springfield, Massachusetts|'''Springfield''']]
:*[[Agawam, Massachusetts|Agawam]] (Lower Ferry)
 
*[[Hartford County, Connecticut]]
 
:*[[Suffield, Connecticut|Suffield]]
:*[[Windsor Locks, Connecticut|Windsor Locks]]
:*[[Windsor, Connecticut|Windsor]]
:*[[Hartford, Connecticut|'''Hartford''']]<br>
 
'''Connecting Routes'''. The '''''Old Connecticut Path ''''' connected with many other settler migration routes:  


'''''Boston connections:'''''  
'''''Boston connections:'''''  
Line 78: Line 24:
'''''Springfield connections:'''''  
'''''Springfield connections:'''''  


:*[[Catskill Road]] (or [[Catskill Turnpike]]; also known as the '''''Ancram Turnpike''''') from [[Springfield, Massachusetts]] to [[Ancram, New York]] to [[Catskill, New York]] to [[Unadilla, New York]] (formerly Wattle's Ferry) on the Susquehanna River.
:*[[Catskill Road]] (or [[Catskill Turnpike]]; also known aa the Ancram Turnpike) from [[Springfield, Massachusetts]] to [[Ancram, New York]] to [[Catskill, New York]] to [[Unadilla, New York]] (formerly Wattle's Ferry) on the Susquehanna River.
:*[[Connecticut River]] attracted settlers by way of the Atlantic Ocean.


'''''Hartford connections'''''  
'''''Hartford connections'''''  


:*[[Greenwood Road]] from [[Hartford, Connecticut]] to [[North Canaan, Connecticut]] to [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]], to [[Albany, New York]].
:*[[Greenwood Road]] from [[Hartford, Connecticut]] to [[North Canaan, Connecticut]] to [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]], to [[Albany, New York]].
:*Road to New Haven and on to New York City.
:*[[Connecticut River]] attracted settlers by way of the Atlantic Ocean.
 
'''Modern parallels'''. The modern roads that roughly match the '''''Old Connecticut Path ''''' from Boston to Springfield to Hartford are:
 
:*'''Broadway''' westbound in Cambridge, Massachusetts
:*'''Western Ave / Arsenal''' westbound to Watertown
:*'''Main Street''' westbound to Waltham
:*'''US-20 W / Weston / Boston Post Road''' westbound to Shrewsbury
:*'''MA-9''' westbound to West Brookfield
:*'''MA-67 / Boston Post Road''' westbound winding toward Palmer
:*where it merges with '''US-20 W / Boston Road / State Street''' westbound into Springfield
 
At Springfield cross the Connecticut River on the south side of town
 
:*from Agawam take '''MA-157 / Main Street / East Street N''' southbound to Hartford, Connecticut
 
=== Settler Records  ===
 
Boston was founded in 1630 by Puritan immigrants from England. Springfield and Hartford on the Connecticut River were founded in 1636 by 100 Puritans colonists. The Indian footpath between these places and Boston attracted settlers who would be able to more easily get access to the markets. Many of the earliest settlers along the Old Connecticut Path would have been from Boston, Massachusetts area, and prior to that from England. Look at the earliest deeds, tax records, and histories of towns along the Old Connecticut Path to learn the names of the first settlers. If you already know the name of a settler near the Old Connecticut Path, you have a good chance of finding his or her genealogy in sources like:
 
*Robert Charles Anderson, ''The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633'', 3 vols. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, c1995). Online at: [https://www.americanancestors.org/search/databasesearch/393/great-migration-begins-immigrants-to-ne-1620-1633-vols-i-iii American Ancestors] by NEHGS ($). {{WorldCat|33083117|item|disp=At various libraries (WorldCat)}}; {{FSC|22717|item|disp=FS Library Book 974 W2a}}.


=== External links  ===
=== External links  ===
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  <references />
  <references />


{{Connecticut|Connecticut}}{{Massachusetts|Massachusetts}}  
{{Connecticut|Connecticut}}{{Massachusetts|Massachusetts}} [[Category:Massachusetts}}  


[[Category:Migration_Routes]] [[Category:US_Migration_Trails_and_Roads]] [[Category:Connecticut Migration Routes]] [[Category:Massachusetts Migration Routes]] [[Category:Suffolk County, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Middlesex County, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Worcester County, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Hampden County, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Hartford County, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Migration_Routes]] [[Category:US_Migration_Trails_and_Roads]] [[Category:Connecticut]] [[Category:Massachusetts]]

Revision as of 11:47, 17 October 2014

United States go to Migration go to Trails and Roads Gotoarrow.png Massachusetts go to Connecticut Gotoarrow.png Old Connecticut Path

Did an ancestor travel the Old Connecticut Path of Massachusetts and Connecticut? Learn about this settler migration route, its transportation history, and find related genealogy sources.

Old Connecticut Path History[edit | edit source]

New England Migration Routes.png

The Old Connecticut Path was created by Native Americans in antiquity.  It was the first North American trail that led west from settlements on the Atlantic seacoast into the interior of America.

The Path was used by members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as 1630. It continued to be used as settlements in Connecticut and other interior locations were settled.

Over the years, settlements like Cambridge, Watertown, Waltham and Weston were established along the path as it winds its way toward South Framingham, Hopkinton, Grafton and westward to Westborough and Woodstock, Connecticut. [1] [2] [3]

Connecting Routes Over time the Old Connecticut Path connected with half a dozen other migration routes:

Boston connections:

Springfield connections:

Hartford connections

External links[edit | edit source]

  • Boston Post Road in Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia (accessed 17 October 2014).

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Wikipedia - Old Connecticut Path[1]
  2. ↑ Sudbury Valley Trustees - Old Connecticut Path[2]
  3. ↑ Frederic J. Wood, The Turnpikes of New England and the Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1919), 25. Internet Archive version online.
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