F ALL the towns in Connecticut there is 

 none more beautiful nor containing more 

 historical objects of general interest than 

 Farmington. It is delightfully situated on 

 the side of a hill, with mountain peaks 

 towering to the east, while to the west it 

 falls gracefully to the meadows, beyond 

 which is the Farmington River making its great bend and 

 flowing toward Avon to join the Connecticut. It is this acci- 

 dental combination 

 of river and moun- 

 tain landscape that 

 makes Farmington 

 so picturesque and 

 beautiful. 



The place was 

 first known as 

 Tunxis Sepus, signi- 

 f y i n g a crooked 

 river, and it was 

 named after a tribe 

 of Tunxis Indians 

 which inhabited, not 

 only what is now 

 known as Farming- 

 ton, but also its sur- 

 rounding meadows 

 and forests. 



It was in the win- 

 ter 'of 1639, when 

 the town of Hart- 

 f o r d had been 

 founded three and 

 one-half years, that 

 its inhabitants began 

 to think their broad 

 meadows were too 

 limited, and to- 

 gether with the 

 towns of Windsor 

 and Wethersfield ap- 

 plied to the General 

 Court for some en- 

 largement of accom- 

 modation. A com- 

 mittee was ap- 

 pointed to view the 

 valley of the Tunxis 

 and report to the 



The Entrance to 



General Court on the 20th of February. Owing to the 

 wintry weather, the investigation was not taken up till the 

 15th of June, and during the interim Captain John Mason, 

 who had recently rid the colony of six hundred Pequots, was 

 added to the committee, which concluded the conditions for 

 the planting of Tunxis. In i64<; the village of Tunxis Sepus 

 became, by legislative enactment, the town of Farmington. 



The settlers found the natural features of the place much 

 the same as we see them to-day. The main street, extending 



from one end of the 

 town to the other, 

 with its houses built 

 by the settlers on 

 what was termed, in 

 the time of the colo- 

 nists, town lots, is 

 typical of all the 

 New England vil- 

 lages. The farm 

 and pasture lands 

 were separate allot- 

 ments to the settlers, 

 and they extended 

 up the mountain 

 side toward the east 

 and to the river on 

 the west. 



Along the main 

 street houses began 

 to rise, log huts at 

 first, each provided, 

 as required by law, 

 with a ladder reach- 

 ing to the ridge for 

 the purpose of per- 

 mitting the chimney 

 \Iewers to examine 

 the c h I m n e y s of 

 each house every six 

 months. These log 

 huts, however, sub- 

 sequently ga\'e way 

 to more substantial 

 and pretentious 

 houses. 



It was iortunate 

 that the early citi- 

 zens of Farmington 

 were able, energetic 



Old Gate," the Summer Home of Rear- Admiral 

 William Sheffield Cowles 



