On the boundary where Waterbury and Cheshire met, homes were built as early as 1712, schools were opened, and in 1778 a separatist church was established. The Congregational Church, Columbia Parish, was created in 1797 by act of the legislature, and its governing body, the Columbia Company, laid taxes, supported church and school, and elected constables, school officials, road surveyors, grave diggers, and a tavern keeper. In May 1827, nearly the same area was incorporated as the Town of Prospect, named for its extended view from an elevation of over eight hundred feet. Farming was the chief occupation, supported by mills for grinding grain, apple cultivation, lumbering, and the manufacture of farm tools, matches, buttons, and other practical and household items. Noted and notorious men from Prospect included Peter Gilkey, a counterfeiter; Julius Hotchkiss, who became the first Mayor of Waterbury, a Representative in Congress, and Lieutenant Governor; Benjamin Dutton Beecher, an inventor of harvesting machinery and a screw-propelled steamboat; and C. L. Mortison, known as Mort for his cartoons and as Lester Green for his tall stories that made the name of Prospect widely known around the country. Men from the area that became Prospect served in colonial wars and the Revolution, and those who served in the Civil War and World War I are listed on the monument in the center of the Green, while World War II, Korean, and Vietnam War soldiers are named on the honor roll in the Town Hall, and those in unmarked graves are honored by a stone monument in the cemetery.