Gaylordsville is a village in the northwest corner of the town of
New Milford,
Litchfield County
Litchfield County is in northwestern Connecticut. As of the 2020 census, the population was 185,186. The county was named after Lichfield, in England. Litchfield County has the lowest population density of any county in Connecticut and is the ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
, United States. It was listed as a
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...
(CDP) prior to the
2020 census.
History
The early history of Gaylordsville is closely connected to the Gaylord family, early settlers in New England. In 1630 William Gaylord arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts on the ship "
Mary and John
''Mary and John'' was a 400-ton ship that is known to have sailed between England and the American colonies four times from 1607 to 1633. She was during the later voyages captained by Robert Davies and owned by Roger Ludlow (1590–1664), one of t ...
" along with his wife and five sons. A deacon in the puritan church, he was involved in the affairs of the colony, signing land grants and serving on the first jury in the colony. He later settled in
East Windsor, Connecticut
East Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 11,190 at the 2020 census. The town has five villages: Broad Brook, Melrose, Scantic, Warehouse Point and Windsorville.
History
In 1633, Settlers laid cl ...
. His great-grandson, Ensign William Gaylord, moved to
Woodbury Woodbury may refer to:
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* Woodbury, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
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in 1706 and married Joanna, the daughter of Captain John Minor. Joanna's sister, Grace, married Samuel Grant, and was an ancestor of President
Grant
Grant or Grants may refer to:
Places
*Grant County (disambiguation)
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* Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia
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*Castle Grant
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* Grant, Alabama
*Grant, Inyo County, C ...
.
In 1712, the Gaylord couple came to New Milford, Connecticut, which had been settled only five years previously. Their house stood on the corner of Main and Elm Streets. For a time he kept a tavern there in addition to doing his regular work as a surveyor. He did a lot of surveying for the State, laying out town boundary lines, and it was, no doubt, on one of these surveying trips that he became impressed with the large areas of level land several miles north of the New Milford village, just north of the straits on the
Housatonic River
The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...
. He began taking title to parcels of it, and soon owned a large part of the valley. To ensure the good will of the Native Americans living in the area, he also bought it from them, giving, according to legend, a horse, a mule, and a two-wheeled cart.
In 1722, a highway was laid out 'by marked trees' north from New Milford to the brook called Whemiseck. The blazed trail ran through Squash Hallow, past the straits, and over Cedar Hill. Mr. Gaylord was probably the surveyor who laid out this road, and probably put it over Cedar Hill so it would not cut into the level areas that were to become his fields.
In 1725, Mr. Gaylord travelled this trail from New Milford and built a log cabin west of the Housatonic just north of the straits. He lived in this cabin three years while he was clearing land, cutting timbers, and building his frame house, which he built in 1728. The following year his oldest son, Aaron, built a house about a quarter of a mile south of his father's, and on the west side of the valley.
During this time the Gaylord family became good friends with their Indian neighbors, teaching them better methods of agriculture, and dickering with them for furs they could use. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Gaylord, Aaron, Joanna, Ruth, Benjamin, and Mary. Benjamin remained at his father's home, and eventually took over the homestead. He married Tryal Morehouse on October 23, 1745.
William Gaylord died October 25, 1743, at the age of 73. His grave, and that of Mrs. Gaylord were the first ones in a cemetery that had been laid out about half a mile south of the Gaylord home.
Geography
Gaylordsville is located at
geographical coordinates
The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the vario ...
41° 38′ 47" North, 73° 29′ 5" West (41.646469, -73.484673).
Gaylordsville is located in the northwest corner of New Milford. It is part of the valley known to the Native Americans as the Wheniuck or Red Plumb Plain. On the east the boundary is Quanuctnic or Long Mountain, but it has never been decided whether it should be at the foot of the mountain or somewhere up on top. The southern boundary is also vague, usually considered to be an imaginary line leaving the Housatonic River somewhere south of the Tory Cave and extending across Squash Hollow. The Sherman town line forms the western boundary, although several homes in Sherman are usually considered to be part of the Gaylordsville community.
The
Housatonic River
The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...
runs through the center of the village and is joined by the Wimisink, Womunshenuck, Naromiyocknowhusunkatankshunk (Morrissey), and Squash Hollow brooks. The south end of the valley is divided into two narrow valleys by Straits Mountain or Pauguiack. The north end of this overlooks the village and is called "the Pinnacle". The area usually considered to be Gaylordsville is about four miles long and one mile wide.
Historical sites
*Brown's Forge, a blacksmith shop. 1870
*The Little Red Schoolhouse 1740 - 1967. The last operating one-room schoolhouse in Connecticut. Also known as the Gaylord School, it was one of New Milford's primary schools for 227 years.
*Merwinsville Hotel 1843
Notable people
*
Katharine Anthony
Katharine Susan Anthony, sometimes also spelled Katherine (November 27, 1877 – November 20, 1965), was a US biographer best known for ''The Lambs'' (1945), a controversial study of the British writers Charles and Mary Lamb.
Biography
Kathar ...
, biographer
*
Elisabeth Irwin
Elisabeth Antoinette Irwin (29 August 1880, Brooklyn, New York–16 October 1942, Manhattan, age 62) was the founder of the Little Red School House. She was an educator, psychologist, reformer, and declared lesbian, living with her life partner ...
, founder of the
Little Red School House
The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, also referred to as LREI, is a school in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by Elisabeth Irwin in 1921 as the Little Red School House and is one of the city's first progressive s ...
in New York City
*
Florence Maybrick
Florence Elizabeth Chandler Maybrick (3 September 1862 – 23 October 1941) was an American woman convicted in the United Kingdom of murdering her husband, cotton merchant James Maybrick.
Early life
Florence Maybrick was born Florence Elizabet ...
, convicted murderer
*
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist.
Born in Poland, Stern came to the US when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union and China, and ...
, violinist
*
Nan Watson, artist
Gallery
File:Gaylordsville, Connecticut 2016 348.jpg
File:Gaylordsville, Connecticut 2016 349.jpg
File:Gaylordsville, Connecticut 2016 350.jpg
File:Gaylordsville, Connecticut 2016 351.jpg
References
External links
Gaylordsville, CTGaylordsville Volunteer Fire DepartmentGaylordsville Historical SocietyTown of New Milford (official site)Greater New Milford Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control
New Milford, Connecticut
Villages in Litchfield County, Connecticut
Villages in Connecticut
Census-designated places in Litchfield County, Connecticut
Census-designated places in Connecticut