Granby

Settled as the Salmon Brook section of Simsbury early in the 18th century and established as a separate ecclesiastical society in 1736, Granby became a separate town in 1786. From the beginning, farming was the main endeavor of the populace, moving from subsistence farming to orchard fruits, tobacco growing, and dairy farming until agriculture waned in the 1950s. Industry developed along streams where water tumbled over the rock ledges common to Granby terrain, producing shoes, horse-drawn carriages, wool cards, and forest products. On July 4, 1825, at the Connecticut-Massachusetts border in Granby, Connecticut's Governor Wolcott commenced construction of the Farmington Canal, built from 1825 to 1849, by turning the first spadeful of earth. Settled by emigrants from Windsor, Granby, like Simsbury, formed the 18th century frontier for the mother town against Indians and their French allies. One early citizen, Daniel Hayes, was kidnapped by local Indians and taken to Canada, from which he escaped and returned home to live nearly a half century longer. In the 20th century, Granby sons and daughters became prominent attorneys, president of a major life insurance company, Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, and Librarian of the State of Connecticut. Granby residents fought in the country's wars from the Indian conflicts of the 17th and 18th centuries to Vietnam, and in the Civil War its volunteers included free blacks fighting for the freedom of their southern brothers. Many of Granby's young men were among those in the Connecticut 16th Militia Regiment who suffered and died in the Confederate prison stockade at Andersonville, Georgia. Granby citizens also joined the 19th-century westward movement and founded Worthington, Ohio, now a suburb of Columbus.

Salmon Brook, Connecticut · United States