Rural Economy in New England 253 



a large square in Litchfield, Conn.; about the same number col- 

 lected about a meeting-house in Farmington; in Windham, also in 

 this state, some 40 or 50 houses were seen "pretty near each other," 

 forming a square.^ The same type of village was seen by Professor 

 Silliman in Lenox, Mass. It had 100 houses gathered about three 

 churches, an academy and a courthouse.^ Killingworth, Conn., 

 furnished an example of what might be called an "extended village." 

 On its broad main street, six rods wide and one and one-half miles 

 long, were 65 houses. In another part of the town there was a vil- 

 lage of 109 houses.^ From a general survey of such figures as are 

 given in Pease and Niles' Gazetteer it seems that in the great major- 

 ity of towns the villages contained less than 50 houses.'* 



Occupations of the Village-Dwellers. 



An examination of the distribution of land ownership in the in- 

 land towns shows that the occupations of the dwellers in these minute 

 nuclei of population, the villages, did not differ essentially from those 

 of their neighbors who lived on scattered farms along the country 

 roads. They were all farmers. In describing the type of village 

 found in the Connecticut Valley, President Dwight says: "The 

 town plat is originally distributed into lots containing from two to 

 ten acres. In a convenient spot, on each of these, a house is erected 

 at the bottom of the courtyard (often neatly enclosed); and is fur- 

 nished universally with a barn, and other convenient outbuildings. 

 . . . . The lot, on which the house stands, universally styled 

 the home lot, is almost of course a meadow, richly cultivated, cov- 

 ered during the pleasant season with verdure, and containing gen- 

 erally a thrifty orchard."^ Besides these home lots the village dwellers 



' Chastellux. Op. cit., I. 48, 38, 23. 



2 Silliman, Benjamin. Remarks on a Short Tour between Hartford and Que- 

 bec. New Haven. 1820. p. 39. 



3 See Field, D. D. A Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex in Con- 

 necticut. Published by the Connecticut Academy of the Arts and Sciences. 

 Middletown. 1819. pp. 108-109. 



* Taking 12 towns from various counties in Connecticut, we find the follow- 

 ing numbers of houses collected in villages: Litchfield, 84; Harwinton, 15-20; 

 Plymouth, 20; Hampton, 20; Farmington, 100; Newtown, 50-60; Milford, 100; 

 Brooklyn, 20; Sterling, 30; Voluntown, 15; Tolland, 30; East Windsor, 40. Of 

 these towns Litchfield and Farmington were exceptionally large both in area 

 and population, and Milford was situated on the coast, affording its inhabitants 

 opportunity for maritime occupations. 



* Travels, II. 317. For a more general description of the New England vil- 

 lages see Lambert, John. Travels in Lower Canada and North America. Lon- 

 don. 1810. 2 vols. II. 307-308, and Duncan, John M. Travels through the 

 United States and Canada. 2 vols. New York. 1823. I. 94-95. 



