A brief history of Woodstock CT
Northeast Connecticut has been home to Algonquin people for at least 12,000 years. The Nipmuc, or Fresh Water People, lived in numerous encampments or villages near bodies of fresh water in a territory that extended from present-day Vermont and New Hampshire through central Massachusetts to northern Rhode Island, and into northeastern Connecticut. Those who lived in the area now known as Woodstock identified themselves as Wabaquasset, which signified they lived in an area where reeds were gathered to be woven into mats for their homes.
Wabaquasset was located at the conjunction of three trails important to the Nipmuc and other Indigenous people, and eventually European traders and colonists–situated as it was on the Great Road from Hartford to Boston, and on the road from Providence to Albany.
In 1674, John Eliot, pastor of the First Church of Roxbury and known as the “Apostle to the Indians” extended his efforts to Wabaquasset, with the hope of converting the people from their traditional spiritual practices to Christianity. Wabaquasset became one of fourteen sites known as a Praying Indian town, and the largest of those in Northeast Connecticut, with 150 residents from thirty Nipmuc families.
King Phillip’s War in 1675 dispersed much of the Wabaquasset population. Many fled to other tribes and villages, some joined the Narragansett to fight the English and some Wabaquasset fought on the side of the English. At the end of the conflict, some returned to their ancestral lands, but the relentless push of European colonization and the colonials’ use and enclosure of the land—so foreign to Nipmuc ways— put significant stress on returning peoples and their way of living with the land, and greatly reduced the Nipmuc population.
New Roxbury
Encouraged by their pastor John Eliot, men known as the Thirteen Goers left Roxbury in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for Wabaquasset in 1686. Eliot, familiar with the area from his proselytizing, knew the land to be fertile and sparsely populated after the dispersal of the Nipmuc people during King Phillip’s War. These Goers founded the town of New Roxbury, the earliest European settlement in the region. Homes and a meeting house were built in the area around present-day Woodstock Hill and Plaine Hill.
In 1690, New Roxbury changed its name to Woodstock because of its proximity to the town of Oxford, reflecting the nearness of those two towns in England. The Town remained a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until 1749, when, after a contentious legal battle with the Massachusetts colony, it seceded in favor of becoming a part of the Connecticut Colony.
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Wabaquasset was located at the conjunction of three trails important to the Nipmuc and other Indigenous people, and eventually European traders and colonists–situated as it was on the Great Road from Hartford to Boston, and on the road from Providence to Albany.
In 1674, John Eliot, pastor of the First Church of Roxbury and known as the “Apostle to the Indians” extended his efforts to Wabaquasset, with the hope of converting the people from their traditional spiritual practices to Christianity. Wabaquasset became one of fourteen sites known as a Praying Indian town, and the largest of those in Northeast Connecticut, with 150 residents from thirty Nipmuc families.
King Phillip’s War in 1675 dispersed much of the Wabaquasset population. Many fled to other tribes and villages, some joined the Narragansett to fight the English and some Wabaquasset fought on the side of the English. At the end of the conflict, some returned to their ancestral lands, but the relentless push of European colonization and the colonials’ use and enclosure of the land—so foreign to Nipmuc ways— put significant stress on returning peoples and their way of living with the land, and greatly reduced the Nipmuc population.
New Roxbury
Encouraged by their pastor John Eliot, men known as the Thirteen Goers left Roxbury in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for Wabaquasset in 1686. Eliot, familiar with the area from his proselytizing, knew the land to be fertile and sparsely populated after the dispersal of the Nipmuc people during King Phillip’s War. These Goers founded the town of New Roxbury, the earliest European settlement in the region. Homes and a meeting house were built in the area around present-day Woodstock Hill and Plaine Hill.
In 1690, New Roxbury changed its name to Woodstock because of its proximity to the town of Oxford, reflecting the nearness of those two towns in England. The Town remained a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until 1749, when, after a contentious legal battle with the Massachusetts colony, it seceded in favor of becoming a part of the Connecticut Colony.
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