Yalesville is an unincorporated village in

Wallingford, Connecticut Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...

, United States. The village was founded in 1677, and was originally called "First Falls". It was renamed Yalesville in 1808.

History

A Committee to locate a mill at the first falls on the Quinnipiac River between Wallingford and Meriden was held in September, 1686. In 1704 the mill was sold to William Tyler, and the community became known as ''Tyler's Mills''. The mill and surrounding lands were sold to Charles Yale around a hundred years later, and the name of the village became Yalesville. It was named in honor of the Yale family manufacturing dynasty, who were pioneers in the manufacturing of Britannia Ware in the region. Founded by Samuel Yale Sr. (1763-1810), their enterprises would evolved into the

Meriden Britannia Company The Meriden Britannia Company was formed in 1852 in Meriden, Connecticut, as a manufacturing company focused on producing wares in britannia metal. It became, for a time, the largest silverware company in the world.(Undated)"Philadelphia Expositio ...

and the Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co., among many others. Their ancestors were the early settlers of Wallingford and descended from Thomas Yale of

New Haven Colony The New Haven Colony was a small English colony in North America from 1638 to 1664 primarily in parts of what is now the state of Connecticut, but also with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The history of ...

, step-son of Governor

Theophilus Eaton Theophilus Eaton (January 7, 1658) was a wealthy New England Puritan merchant, first Governor of New Haven Colony, Connecticut, co founder of that same colony and co founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His brother, Nathaniel Eaton, w ...

. Many members joined the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, fighting at the

Battle of Fort Washington The Battle of Fort Washington was fought in New York on November 16, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain. It was a British victory that gained the surrender of the remnant of the garrison of ...

and at Fort Lee, under General

Nathanael Greene Nathanael Greene (June 19, 1786, sometimes misspelled Nathaniel) was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He emerged from the war with a reputation as General George Washington's most talented and dependab ...

, and were captured as prisoners. They also enlisted in the

Siege of Louisbourg (1745) The siege of Louisbourg took place in 1745 when a New England colonial force aided by a British fleet captured Louisbourg, the capital of the French province of Île-Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island) during the War of the Austrian S ...

, the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

, the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, and the

Spanish-American War Spanish Americans ( es, españoles estadounidenses, ''hispanoestadounidenses'', or ''hispanonorteamericanos'') are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from Spain. They are the longest-established European American group in th ...

. In 1695, Yalesville residents grew tired of having to take a canoe across the river, so a bridge was built adjacent to the residence of Roswell Yale, in what is now Yalesville. In about 1800, the current bridge over the Quinnipiac River was built. At the same time, the first school was constructed in Yalesville. The Yalesville Elementary School, now named Mary Fritz Elementary School, is the second one built on the site.

Geography

Yalesville is located in the northwestern portion of Wallingford, 10 miles from

Wadsworth Falls State Park Wadsworth Falls State Park, or simply Wadsworth Falls, is a public recreation and preserved natural area located on the Coginchaug River in the towns of Middletown and Middlefield, Connecticut. The state park's offer trail hiking and fishing ...

. The Wharton Brook and the

Quinnipiac River The Quinnipiac River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 long river in the New England region of the United States, located entirely in the state of Conne ...

, also known as Dragon River, run through Yalesville.

References

{{authority control Wallingford, Connecticut Villages in Connecticut Villages in New Haven County, Connecticut