Originally part of the long narrow area called Voluntown, this northern section separated and obtained town privileges from the Connecticut General Assembly on the second Thursday of May, 1794. It was named for a temporary resident, Dr. John Sterling, who had promised the town a library in return for the honor. Although he failed to fulfill that promise, a library was obtained through private donations. The first town meeting was held on June 9, 1794, at the home of Robert Dixon on Sterling Hill. The first post office was established as Sterling on October 1, 1809, and the name was later changed to Sterling Hill. The American Manufacturing Company, also known as Potter's Factory, was the first cotton mill in Sterling, situated on the Quandock River about 1800, followed by the Sterling Manufacturing Company on the Moosup River in 1808. Local industrialist William Pike pioneered the use of chlorine as a bleaching agent for cloth and established distilleries, or sapworks, for dyers that extracted the first pyroligneous acid made in this country. His son James discovered a process of coloring with a fast black superior to any then in use. The arrival of the first railroad in 1854, connecting Providence with Hartford, greatly eased the distribution of materials and contributed to Sterling's economic base. Oneco, as it is known today, was named for Owaneco, son of the Mohegan sachem Uncas, who had claimed ownership of large tracts of eastern Connecticut land in early colonial days. About 1820, Henry Sabin built a cotton factory there and named the village Sabinville. In the 1850s, Smith and Williams began quarrying granite in the vicinity, an industry that remains active.