How did our little piece of Connecticut develop? Avon was incorporated in 1830, a blink of time away. Two hundred million years before that, dinosaurs walked here: Coelophysis, Anchisaurus, Eubrontes. Four million years ago, a shallow sea covered Connecticut, and mountains as grand as the Alps rose up. Time blew the mountains away bit by bit, and rivers carried their pieces to places like Avon, located low and central. Over eons this sediment hardened into sandstone and shale. Then came fiery lava and the grinding land twisted itself into the steep cliffs of Talcott Mountain. For the next two million years, glaciers came and went. Thick ice buried Avon at least four times, rubbing the rocks raw and leaving behind boulders from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. It was enough to make a river go crazy. The Farmington River, which once flowed south, cranked into reverse and burst into the Connecticut River. And then, that part of the show was over. Twenty-five thousand years ago, after the ice left, mastodons lived here. According to Christopher Bickford in his book Farmington, in the period of 6,000 – 4,000 B.C, the first human inhabitants of the Farmington Valley arrived. About 1,000 years ago, Tunxis settled the area and named it Tunxis Sepus. They belonged to the Algonquian family of tribes, which included Podunk and Naugunk tribes and members of tribes living in the area stretching from Windsor to Haddam. In 1640, the Tunxis Indians sold their land to English proprietors, and the Town of Farmington was established in 1645. Out from Farmington came Stephen Hart, the first white settler to own land in what is today Avon, called then the “land att Nod.” In 1750, the land of Nod broke off from Farmington when the General Assembly established it as the separate parish of Northington. With this, the Society of Northington took control of its religious affairs, called its first pastor (Rev.Ebenezer Booge, 1751), and built its own meetinghouse (1754). These were wonderful improvements for the approximately 160 residents. They wrote that they had “reason to hope, with the blessing of God on our labors, that we shall be well able to support the Gospel among ourselves for the future....” The question of where to put the new meetinghouse, however, caused great local concern. At the time, most homes were located east of the Farmington River in today’s Waterville Road vicinity. Accordingly, the Hartford County Court said the meetinghouse must be there. Twenty-two inhabitants living west of the river signed a petition claiming hardship at crossing the river to attend church. The Court didn’t budge, and the first meetinghouse went up east of the river in 1754. The site, located at the end of today’s Reverknolls, off of Route 10, is marked by a small monument. Northington’s population in the western section grew, but there was no bridge for these inhabitants to use to get to church until 1763. Even then, ice and floods destroyed that bridge and at least five other bridges over the next few decades. Time and population growth - and a suspicious meetinghouse fire in 1817, resolved the one-meetinghouse problem. With the development of Lovely Street and Whortleberry Hill to the west, political power shifted west. Every voice counted for the vote to build a new meetinghouse in what is today West Avon. By a vote of 44 to 37, a new meetinghouse went up in 1818 (today the West Avon Congregational Church on Country Club Road). Fourteen of the minority votors formed a new Congregational society, and built Avon’s second church the very next year, 1819 (today the Avon Congregational Church on West Main Street). With the meetinghouse issue at rest - if not exactly at peace - the time was coming to make the parish into a town. A book published in 1820 highlighted the area’s natural beauty: Remarks Made on a Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec in the Autumn of 1819. Its author was Benjamin Silliman, a Yale College professor of Chemistry and Natural History. Inside were engravings based on Daniel Wadsworth’s drawings, including two spectacular views of Avon Mountain and the Wadsworth estate. The parish’s business outlook looked good with the completion in 1828 of the Farmington Canal, a 36-foot wide highway of water linking Northington to Northampton, Long Island Sound, and New York City. On Dec. 22, 1828, Northington residents voted to incorporate, and to petition the Connecticut General Assembly to become a town. The vote was 59 in favor, and 44 opposed. With this vote, Avon agreed to sever ties with Farmington, its mother town. Farmington, founded in 1645, would eventually spin off a total ofseven daughter towns: Southington (1779), Berlin (1785), Bristol (1785), Burlington (1806), Avon (1830), New Britain (1850), and Plainville (1869). The General Assembly finally approved the petition on May 5, 1830, granting that Northington parish “is hereby incorporated into a distinct town, by the name of Avon….” The voters met seven weeks later at the West Avon Congregational Church on June 21, 1830 to organize their government. At this meeting they had elections for moderator, selectmen, town clerk, treasurer, constables, grand jurors, tythingmen, fence viewers, keykeepers, sealers of weights and measures, assessors, a board of relief, and a committee to sell highways and remove nuisances. Town and electors’ meetings alternated between the West Avon Congregational Church and the Avon Congregational Church from 1830 until 1891, when the town built its first town hall. Why the name Avon? The accepted story is that the name came from the Avon River in England. “Avon” had been in use here as early as 1753, when church marriage records began to record the bride or groom’s residence as “Avon” or “Northington.” In 1830, Avon had 1,025 residents, two Congregational meetinghouses, the Baptist Church, the Farmington Canal, a bustling Canal Warehouse, Francis Woodford’s three story hotel across the road from Obadiah Gillet’s Tally Ho Tavern and Inn, and the Talcott Mountain Turnpike conveniently linking Avon with Boston, Hartford, Albany (N.Y.) and points west. With this Albany Turnpike (today Route 44) and the busy canal, Avon was at a dynamic crossroads. Just six years later, in 1836, Avon was among the towns included in Connecticut Historical Collections, John Barber’s sumptuous book about Connecticut’s history. Barber described Avon as “for the most part a level and fertile tract of land in the valley of the Farmington river, between two mountainous ridges on the east and west.” John Barber got that one right. Avon was fertile. Families thrived on dairy, poultry, and tobacco farms, notably the Alsop, Buckland, Colton, Delbon, Distin, Stone, Strong, Thompson, Watson, Westerman and Viti farms. Avon blossomed with the coming of energetic and talented men and women from Italy, Ireland, Eastern Europe, and Germany. They worked at the impressive yet volatile Climax Fuse factory (later named Ensign-Bickford), farmed, and operated shops. Education advanced even within the constraints of one-room schoolhouses. Pleasures and problems brought by the automobile continue today. Avon’s past is present. The 1778 First Company Horse Guards still operates. The Town converted the former Ensign-Bickford Company fuse factory buildings into offices and workshops. The North Blacksmith Shop is now Avon Old Farms Inn’s Forge Room. Life in early Avon is frozen in the remarkable diaries of Reverend Rufus Hawley, covering 1767-1812, and the journals and notebooks of Frank Hadsell, covering 1845-1942. Frank and his brother Clinton, both photographers, left behind hundreds of glass plate negatives taken about 1889-1919, when Avon’s population was still – as it had been in 1830 - just over 1,000. People and places of special interest include the Heublein Tower overlooking Avon, a familiar landmark. It was there that Republicans asked General Dwight Eisenhower to run for president. The innovative Avon Old Farms School for boys opened in 1927, planned and financed by Theodate Pope Riddle, an architect with personal flair and firm convictions about design. Mrs. Riddle employed stonemasons from the English Cotswolds, and skilled Italian immigrants who had built Ensign-Bickford’s stone buildings. In Avon’s landscape of 22.6 square miles are reminders of the Farmington Canal, the railroad, and Albany Turnpike. The Avon Historical Society operates the restored Pine Grove Schoolhouse, the Living Museum, and the Derrin House, a circa 1810 farmhouse. In 1950, Avon’s population was projected to soon pass 5,000. Town officials adopted a development plan in 1954. Avon’s Home Rule Charter, was adopted in 1959 and amended in 1962, 1969, 1975, 1980 and 1998. On July 1, 1981, the revised Charter provided for a Town Manager, Town Council, Board of Finance and Town Meeting. Today Avon’s population is estimated at 16,055. On Nov. 11, 1996, the Town and the Gildo T. Consolini Post 3272, Veterans of Foreign Wars, dedicated the Avon Veterans Memorial on the Town Green. In the Mexican War (1846-1848), three Avon men served, and one was lost. During the Civil War (1861-1865), Avon sent off a heartbreaking sum of 98 men to fight when the whole population of the town was only 1,059. Twenty-five soldiers did not return. For the First World War (1917-1918), Avon contributed 77 men, and lost none. For the Second World War (1941-1946), 300 men and women from Avon served, and losses numbered 13. In the Korean War (1950-1955) 51 from Avon served, with no losses. In the Gulf War (1990-1994), 32 men and women served, with no losses. In Vietnam (1961-1975), among the 153 men and women were served, there was one death and one man Missing in Action. ********** Avon reaches a fine milestone in 2005: it has been a town for 175 years. Its history stretches back to 1830, and much further. With help from volunteers and donors, the historical collections and programs of the town continue to grow. The Avon Historical Society, and the Avon Free Public Library’s Marian Hunter History Room continue to collect (respectively) Avon-related artifacts and archives. We hope that Avon’s anniversary events this year will heighten appreciation for our history, and strengthen those organizations, town officials, residents, businesses and volunteers who seek to promote and preserve Avon’s heritage. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avon%2C_Connecticut