South Woodstock was an early center of industry in northeastern Connecticut. Soon after arriving in 1686, the first settlers built a sawmill on a small brook flowing into the Great Lake, and later several dams along Sawmill Brook powered mills and other small businesses. In 1845, twine, cotton batting, and more than 6,000 wooden tubs were manufactured here. That manufacturing era ended in 1866 when the Warner Dam burst, destroying three bridges and two factories and damaging several businesses. At the time of the Lexington alarm in 1775, more volunteers came from Woodstock than from any other town in Connecticut, and Mrs. Samuel McClellan planted elms on this common to commemorate that event. In 1859, the Woodstock Agricultural Society held its first fair here and in the vestry of the Baptist Church, and the fair moved to its present site in 1870. A time capsule buried here by Woodstock Public School students and the Tercentenary Committee is to be opened in A.D. 2086 for Woodstock’s 400th anniversary.