Old Connecticut Path: Difference between revisions

''[[United States Genealogy|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 Genealogy Guide|Massachusetts]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png|go to]] [[Connecticut Genealogy|Connecticut]]'' [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] '''Old Connecticut Path'''  

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>  

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]]

*[[Middlesex County, Massachusetts]]

:*[[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]]  

:*[[Watertown, Massachusetts|Watertown]]  

:*[[Weston, Massachusetts|Weston]]  

:*[[Sudbury, Massachusetts|Sudbury]]  

*[[Worcester County, Massachusetts]]

:*[[Shrewsbury, Massachusetts|Shrewsbury]]  

:*[[Worcester, Massachusetts|Worcester]]  

:*[[Leicester, Massachusetts|Leicester]]  

:*[[Spencer, Massachusetts|Spencer]]  

:*[[Warren, Massachusetts|Warren]] (Western)

*[[Hampden County, Massachusetts]]

:*[[Palmer, Massachusetts|Palmer]]  

*[[Hartford County, Connecticut]]

:*[[Windsor Locks, Connecticut|Windsor Locks]]  

:*[[Windsor, Connecticut|Windsor]]  

:*[[Bay Road]] connects [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] (Massachusetts Bay) to [[New Bedford, Massachusetts|New Bedford]] (Buzzards Bay).  

:*[[Coast Path]] follows an ancient Indian path near the shoreline from [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] to [[Plymouth, Massachusetts|Plymouth]].  

:*[[Kennebunk Road]] links [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] along the New England coast to [[Augusta, Maine]].  

:*[[King's Highway]] also known as the Boston Post Road goes from [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], Massachusetts to New York City, and south to [[Charleston County, South Carolina|Charleston, South Carolina]] with extensions on each end. In Massachusetts and Connecticut there were at least three competing routes for the Boston Post Road. Parts were laid out 1650 to 1735; its length remained in heavy use through 1783, and some parts are used to this day.  

:*[[Mohawk or Iroquois Trail]] This trail was established in 1722 from [[Albany, New York|Albany]] to [[Utica, New York|Utica]] to [[Rome, New York|Rome]] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Oswego Fort Oswego] on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Ontario Lake Ontario]. The [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] to Albany side of that route probably preceded the Albany to Oswego route by many years.  

:*[[Old Roebuck Road]] goes from [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] to [[Providence, Rhode Island]] (Narragansett Bay).

:*[[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.  

:*[[Connecticut River]] attracted settlers by way of the Atlantic Ocean.

:*[[Greenwood Road]] from [[Hartford, Connecticut]] to [[North Canaan, Connecticut]] to [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]], to [[Albany, New York]].  

:*[[Connecticut River]] attracted settlers by way of the Atlantic Ocean.

*[http://www.americanancestors.org/about/ New England Historic Genealogical Society]

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