South Windsor was incorporated as a town in 1845 after separating from East Windsor, which had been divided from Windsor in 1768. The area had once been the territory of the Podunk Indians, and settlers from Dorchester, Massachusetts, purchased land from them in 1636. John Bissell's Ferry, the first across the Connecticut River, operated continuously from 1641 until 1917. The Reverend Timothy Edwards served as pastor of the first church in the parish from 1694 to 1758, and his son Jonathan Edwards, who was born here, became a famous theologian and philosopher. At the mouth of the Scantic River, shipbuilding and shipping took place from before 1728 to 1820. The town was the home of General Roger Wolcott, colonial governor from 1750 to 1754, and the birthplace of his son Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Connecticut from 1796 to 1797. Other notable natives included Eli Terry, originator of the cheap "Yankee Clock," and John Fitch, inventor of the first successful steamboat in 1787. The nearby Grant family homestead is the ancestral home of General and President Ulysses S. Grant.